- Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles.
- Reuters
It turns out Joe Francis isn’t the only one interested in catching impaired co-eds flashing smiles (and more) on the beach.
Girls Gone Wild will soon be under new ownership, following a bankruptcy judge’s approval in Los Angeles Wednesday of the company’s sale for just over $1.8 million.
An investor group led by Liquidity Capital made the offer for Girls Gone Wild back in February, agreeing to a deal that also includes the assumption of some of the company’s liabilities. When no competing bids came forward by earlier this month, the company’s bankruptcy trustee, R. Todd Neilson, canceled a scheduled auction.
The purchase is the first foray into adult entertainment for Liquidity Capital, which invests in distressed companies. Earlier this year, a representative for the investor group said the new owners hope to revive the Girls Gone Wild brand, which made a name for itself by peddling spring break-related smut in low-budget, late-night television commercials. An attorney and a representative for the investors did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
Mr. Neilson said by email Thursday that he is “happy we were able to achieve a sale under very difficult circumstances” and that he’s appreciative of the collective efforts to finalize the deal.
Mr. Francis, who founded Girls Gone Wild in 1997, has sought for months to win a court’s approval to block the sale of the brand. His latest attempt to do so, through an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, is pending. Mr. Francis could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Four of the companies behind Girls Gone Wild’s operations filed for Chapter 11 protection on Feb. 27, 2013, to block Las Vegas entertainment kingpin Steve Wynn and his resort company from taking the companies’ assets as repayment for Mr. Francis’s $2 million in gambling debts.
Over the years, that debt and other dispute-related costs—including a judgment from a defamation lawsuit—climbed to more than $30 million. The bankruptcy filings for Girls Gone Wild’s holding companies stopped the collection efforts.
-Katy Stech contributed to this article.
Write to Sara Randazzo at sara.randazzo@wsj.com. Follow her on Twitter at @sara_randazzo.
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