An entrepreneur active in the field of digital advertising has submitted a purchase offer at a knockdown price for the remains of the Métro newspaper.
Pierre-Antoine Fradet, CEO of Montreal-based Atedra and New York-based Adstanding, is offering $50,000 for the computers, name and intellectual property, told The Press employees familiar with the matter.
The offer, which was communicated to ex-employees, does not imply business continuity for this local media which already employed nearly 70 people, half of them in the editorial department, before ceasing its activities on August 11.
This is a disappointment for the latter, since Mr. Fradet had submitted an offer in October which implied business continuity, under certain conditions.
Mr. Fradet then offered an amount to be specified between $500,000 and $2 million and proposed offering jobs to journalists and other employees of Metro responsible for the content, provided that they agree on the working conditions and terms of employment.
This offer was deemed unsatisfactory by the trustee in the file, Stéphane De Broux, of KPMG, who invited Mr. Fradet to clarify it and gave him time to do so.
Final nail in the coffin
According to employees, the recent much lower offer – and without mention of a relaunch – is mainly explained by the buyer’s abandonment, this time, of the tax credits which remain in the company’s assets and which could have helped with the resumption of activities: “Basically, he offers $27,000 for the computers and $23,000 for the name of the newspaper, the intellectual property and the archives, which probably contain analytical data which has value value for an advertiser,” said The Press a former journalist from Metro. “The idea of rehiring employees is no longer there. It’s not clear what the buyer wants to do. It’s disappointing for us, even though after 4 months, many have moved elsewhere. »
“There doesn’t seem to be any relaunch in this new offer, in any case, it’s not indicated. We would like to have more information on his intentions. It is unclear. With the new offering, it looks like its intention is to buy data and computers,” he told The Press another ex-employee.
Mr. Fradet could not be reached at his company number.
His second offer was made on December 18 and expires on December 21 at 5 p.m.
“If the outcome of this affair is the death of the Metro, I am devastated,” said Annick Charette, president of the National Communications Federation, affiliated with the CSN, which represented the newspaper’s employees. “It would be the end of local news in Montreal. »
Trustee De Broux could not be reached at the time of publication.