Who will buy Infowars? Both supporters and opponents of Alex Jones interested in financial setback auction

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars broadcasts could complete next week as he faces a court-ordered auction of his business’s assets to assist pay the more than $1 billion defamation judgment he owes families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Or maybe not.

Both opponents and supporters of the bombastic internet display and radio host have expressed gain in bidding on the Infowars properties he has built over the history 25 years. They include Roger Stone, an friend of Jones and Donald Trump, and anti-Jones progressive media groups. If Jones supporters buy the assets, he could complete up staying on Infowars.

Up for sale are everything from Jones’ studio desk to Infowars’ name, video archive, social media accounts and product trademarks. Buyers can even purchase an armored truck and video cameras. For now, Jones’ personal social media, including his account on X, formerly known as Twitter, with 3 million followers, are not up for sale, but court proceedings on whether they should be auctioned are pending.

The auctions resulted from Jones’ personal financial setback case, which he filed in late 2022 after the Sandy Hook families were awarded nearly $1.5 billion in damages in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas over his claims that the school shooting was a hoax. Many of Jones’ personal assets also are being liquidated to assist pay the judgment.

The deadline to submit bids and nondisclosure agreements on the Infowars assets is Friday afternoon. After the bids are reviewed, prospective buyers deemed qualified will be invited to a live auction that could view multiple bidding rounds next Wednesday. Any items not sold will be put up at another auction on Dec. 10.

Jones has expressed confidence that supporters — whom he did not name — will buy the assets of Infowars and its parent business, Free talk Systems, allowing him to continue using its platforms. He also appears to be preparing for losing the brand because he has set up recent websites and social media accounts and has been directing his spectators to them.

“There’s a lot of buyers, people that are patriots that desire it and will arrive in,” Jones said on his display in August. “If not … we’ll work with somebody else, fire something up. And it’ll be a little bit of a hiccup for the crew, and things. But that will just make us bigger.”

Email messages to Infowars and Jones’ financial setback lawyer were not returned.

It’s not obvious how much money the auctions might bring in. In court documents, Free talk Systems listed the total worth of its properties and holdings at $18 million. Proceeds from the sales will leave to creditors including the Sandy Hook families, who have not yet received any money from Jones and his business.

Confidentiality agreements and sealed bids generally are used in auctions to maximize bid amounts while preventing bidders from talking to each other and driving down the offers. The trustee in Jones’ financial setback case said in court documents that the procedures for the Infowars auction were designed to attract the highest feasible bids.

Christopher Mattei, a Connecticut lawyer representing the Sandy Hook families, called the auctions an significant milestone in their yearslong fight to hold Jones accountable. He also said the families will be seeking a portion of all Jones’ upcoming turnover.

“From the beginning, the Connecticut families have sought to hold Jones fully accountable for his lies and to protect other families from him,” Mattei said. “Stripping Jones of the corrupt business he used to attack the families while poisoning the minds of his listeners is an significant assess of fairness.”

The families sued Jones and his business for defamation and emotional distress for repeatedly saying on his display that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control.

Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ hoax conspiracies and threats by his followers.

Jones, who has since acknowledged that the shooting did happen, is appealing the judgments.

Jones has made millions of dollars from his internet and radio shows, primarily through sales of nutritional supplements, survival gear, clothing and other merchandise.

Stone, the Jones and Trump friend and a conservative commentator, said on his X account and on Jones’ display that he would like to put together a throng of investors to buy Infowars. He did not profitability email and social media messages on Thursday.

“I comprehend the importance of Infowars as a beacon of the truth, as a beacon of truthful information. And therefore, I would like to do whatever I possibly can to ensure, if feasible, that Infowars survives,” Stone said on Jones’ display in September.

People on social media also have urged billionaire Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and X, to buy Infowars, an concept Jones has backed but Musk has not publicly responded to.

On the other side, Jones’ detractors have shown gain in buying Infowars, kicking Jones out and turning it into something else, such as a information site that debunks conspiracy theories or even a parody site. They include officials at two progressive media sites, The Barbed Wire and Media Matters for America.

An view piece by The Barbed Wire in September by publisher Jeff Rotkoff had a headline that read, “Let’s Buy Infowars. Alex Jones used these exact materials to exploit his viewers, peddle conspiracy theories, and damage the lives of grieving parents. We desire revenge.”

Rotkoff urged readers to donate money to assist put in bids, but he said Thursday that The Barbed Wire, based in Jones’ home state of Texas, was now unlikely to make any offers.

“But we have talked to a number of similarly ideologically aligned bidders and we are sure we will be outbid,” Rotkoff said in an email. “We’re thrilled that there appear to be multiple well-resourced bidders who distribute our gain in undoing much of the damage to our country done by Alex Jones. We’ll be rooting for those folks to be successful.”

He declined to declare who the other potential bidders were.

Who exactly has submitted bids so far has not been disclosed. Jeff Tanenbaum, president of ThreeSixty resource Advisors, which is helping to run the auction along with Tranzon resource Advisors, would only declare there have been a large number of inquiries.

If detractors buy up Infowars’ properties and Jones gets the boot, he should be able to construct recent platforms fairly quickly, said Melissa Zimdars, an associate professor of communication and media at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.

“As long as there is an spectators hungry for his content — and there is — he’ll be able to utilize X and various fringe social media platforms,” she said in an email.