New York
CNN
—
Audacy, the struggling multi-platform audio content material firm, is submitting for Chapter 11 chapter, the corporate introduced Sunday.
The web radio conglomerate — among the many largest radio corporations within the nation — was saddled with substantial debt and confronted slowed-down promoting income. Audacy stated it’s getting into right into a restructuring settlement to cut back its debt from about $1.9 billion to $350 million.
“Whereas our transformation has enhanced our aggressive place, the right storm of sustained macroeconomic challenges over the previous 4 years dealing with the standard promoting market has led to a pointy discount of a number of billion {dollars} in cumulative radio advert spending,” stated David Area, chairman, president and CEO of Audacy, in an announcement.
“With our scaled management place, our uniquely differentiated premium audio content material and a strong capital construction, we imagine Audacy will emerge nicely positioned to proceed its innovation and progress within the dynamic audio enterprise,” he stated.
Audacy, which was delisted from the New York Inventory Alternate in November 2023, stated it doesn’t count on the restructuring to have an effect on advertisers, companions and staff.
Area stated within the firm’s 2023 third-quarter earnings release that Audacy was in “constructive conversations” with its lenders to remain afloat. In a May SEC filing, Audacy additionally pointed to “present macroeconomic situations” hurting their forecasted income, comparable to excessive inflation and elevated competitors for advertisers.
In a May SEC filing, Audacy stated its income forecast over the following yr wouldn’t be sufficient to meet its debt obligations.
The corporate had a grace interval for curiosity funds due in October 2023. On the time, Audacy stated it was going to make use of the extension to strategize a plan with lenders for its enterprise operations.
Based in 1968, Philadelphia-based Audacy operates in tons of of US radio markets.