The market did not decide, given the bids were secret.

A complicating factor here is that the Sandy Hook families (who as far as I know are the large majority of the creditors) also supported the sale.

I assume there are other creditors who didn't?

It wasn’t rejected because the judge thought it wasn’t the highest value among the bids; it was rejected because the judge thinks the auction should’ve asked for follow-up bids

And there's a trustee for a reason. The debtors decided that the value of keeping Alex Jones away from InfoWars had its own value and were willing to accept a lower bid. There's no fiduciary duty to maximize the proceeds from the sale, and Alex buying back his own assets during a bankruptcy auction is actual fraud.

A first price sealed bid auction is a perfectly common type of auction.
It's functionally equivalent to an auction where you know the value of a thing (like we do a business being liquidated because the owner is in extremely deep unrelated legal debt), and the auctioneer starts by asking for the face value and then progressively lowers the ask until the first person accepts the price.
Instead of trying to get the lowest price possible, people are incentivised to start with their best offer for what they actually think the thing is valued. Allowing follow-up bids encourages people to low-ball and work their way up, which can reduce the price the seller gets for the item.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sealed-bid-auction.asp

The underlying reason for the bankruptcy is bigger than dollars. Avoiding selling infowars to some other conservative shitheads to continue the harassment of Sandy Hook victims is far more important than dollar signs.

This was not a typical bankruptcy auction, and part of the trustee’s role was to ensure an outcome that was acceptable to those injured by Jones, eg the Sandy Hook families.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickrey_auction

There are numerous formats of auction. I don't think a Vickrey auction is what they did, but it is an example of a sealed auction format that is well supported as legitimately and efficiently maximizing value for the seller.

(this is a joke) To be fair I can make the exact same claim. I could murder someone and the number of votes I receive yearly will not be impacted.

what if he's secretly ✨luigi✨

Right and now the parents, who already said they were satisfied with the offer, can watch as it gets sold right back to the shitheads who caused the lawsuit to happen in the first place. Either that or those shitheads can bid some outrageously high number that either guarantees them ownership or guarantees the parents must forgive a much larger portion of the debt so that someone else like the Onion can own it.

Either way the parents are facing a worse outcome now.

Journalism, probably

Sealed buds are usually better for that.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sealed-bid-auction.asp

Each party is incentivised to make the highest offer they're willing to pay from the beginning, as opposed to negotiating the best price they can get.

Additionally, the families forgiving a significant amount of money as part of the bid should factor in, since the responsibility of the estate is to get the best deal, not the most cash.

Problem is why did that auction even happen or rather was allowed if it was technically now allowed for a bankrupcy case?

Feels like intentional so they can go "well, we don't like the winner. time to revoke it"

Sealed bids encourage last and best offers, and prevent the deepest pockets from submitting a "highest plus one" bid that minimizes the proceeds from the sale.

This judge is either a dipshit or corrupt.

It’s technically the law

Is it though?

He would never accept a deposit from the interested parties before making this decision. That would be a bribe, and extremely illegal.

He will accept his deposit from the interested parties after making the decision. That is a gratuity, and is now totally legal, thanks to SCOTUS.

And they are interviewing retired bankruptcy judges that are apparently at a loss right now.