it appears that Penguin Random House intends to pass on any unpaid debt they have from Diamond to IDW and, possibly, the other publishers as well. Penguin Random House is the biggest creditor for Diamond, to the tune of nine million dollars. And it seems that they may want IDW and the other publishers to make up these losses out of future earnings. Which may explain Marvel’s interest. In the audit section of the report, prepared by an independent auditor, it is noted that there is “Substantial Doubt About the Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern,” the entity being IDW, and stating;
“the accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 19 to the financial statements, the collectability of certain receivables sold by the Company’s distributor are in question and the dollar amount of the receivable in question cannot be estimated at this time and has stated that substantial doubt exists about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
More consolidation of the comics industry.
I’m sick to bastard death of everything being hoovered up by conglomerates.
Great, just what we need is Marvel to suck up IDW and turn it into a husk.
They don’t really need to even buy them, they can just wait for the holders of the big licences (Star Trek, TMNT, Sonic, etc) to need a new home and they can likely make a “competitive” pitch for them. Marvel have had two previous runs on Star Trek and DC (including Wildstorm) have had three, so the Big Two may both be interested.
So, more a fire sale than a takeover.
The Diamond bankruptcy could bring a lot of publishers down. The initial focus was on the smaller publishers as the remaining distributors don’t look like they are going to take them on. However, IDW is a well-known name with key licenses (TMNT, Star Trek and Sonic) and it looks like they are caught between two distributors neither of whom look interested in footing the bill. That kind of thing is going to harm those doing the most business, so small and medium publishers may be into a world of hurt.
Oh so THIS is why my shop has been really struggling stocking non-big-two comics lately? Good to know.
Also boooooooo someone save IDW, I need my Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rites of Spring, it’s Sam in the 90s! That and my adult turtles 2 electric boogaloo, I mean Last Ronin II.
Oh so THIS is why my shop has been really struggling stocking non-big-two comics lately? Good to know.
It may not have been but most larger publishers had left Diamond but were letting their new distributor still sell their stock to Diamond as some shops were staying with them. However, once this bankruptcy news hit (and it looks like they might be stuck not getting paid for stock Diamond has sold) they stopped this deal. So some shops will have had to quickly scramble to get their stock from other sources.
I’m betting that’s it, they use Lunar already too but I think they mained Diamond and so I bet their diamond orders got canceled and they said “SHIT hey Lunar? Can we order some of X?”
