In a stunning turn of events, in a process that has been full of them, Alliance Entertainment has terminated their purchase of Diamond Comics. The move was revealed in an SEC filing, and initially reported by ICv2.
A brief filing that also included notice that Thomas Finke, an Alliance board member was resigning, contained the statement:
On April 24, 2025, the Company sent a Notice of Termination to Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. (“Diamond”), terminating the previously executed Asset Purchase Agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Diamond through a court-supervised bankruptcy process. The termination was effective immediately.
Presumably, this means the joint bid by Universal Distribution and Ad Populum will be declared the winner in the Diamond bankruptcy sweepstakes.
This marks the FOURTH switch in ownership for the various Diamond Comics assets. While both Universal and Alliance were interested in purchasing Diamond last year, before before Diamond’s bankruptcy filing on January 14th, Alliance initially won the auction, as announced on March 25th. But before the court could certify that, Diamond announced they were instead approving the joint Universal/Ad Populum bid, despite it being lower. Alliance fired back with a lawsuit, revealed on April 7th, but then a court appeared to once again approve the Alliance bid, now raised to a total of $85 million.
Things seem to have settled down following that decision, with a steady stream of anodyne filings suggesting that Diamond was settling its affairs as it moved to new ownership, and creditors would eventually learn how much money they would get.
And then BAM! on April 24th, Alliance pulled out.
Given that Diamond – and reportedly quite a few larger comics publishers – favored the Universal bid, maybe this can be seen as a happy ending? Indeed, Diamond sent out a letter to publishers today indicating they were still moving forward with business.
Dear Publishers,
You may have heard or read that Alliance Entertainment made the decision not to proceed with its transaction with Diamond. While that may be disappointing to hear, be assured that the sale process will proceed with an alternative partner in the very near term. These partners have strong balance sheets and, importantly, unmatched presence and experience in our core industries.|
What does this mean for you? As we continue with this process, we will be operating on a business-as-usual basis as we have been doing with the same focus on excellent sales and customer service.
On behalf of the Diamond Books family, we want to thank you for your continued patience and support. Your commitment is essential, as we navigate this situation.
Thanks!
Emily Botica (She/Her)
Vice President, Publisher Relations & Marketing
Diamond Book Distributors
What the heck is going on here?
A couple of guesses. Alliance was mostly interested in Diamond’s toys/games business that was losing less money than the comics business. Unfortunately, the tariff war with China is already having a devastating effect on the toys and games business. While publishing has actually been spared (for now), the toy business is suddenly incredibly unstable, and maybe investing $85 million in that business suddenly looks like a pretty bad deal. So bad that Alliance might feel that they are better off eating all the legal fees they invested in this process already.
It’s also very clear that Alliance was an unwelcome suitor for Diamond, who always favored Universal. That could have also factored into the decision.
Hopefully some of of this will come out some day – perhaps Alliance chairman Bruce Ogilvie will go on a podcast and explain what happened.
In the meantime, all hell has broken loose yet again in the thrill ride that we know as The Diamond Comics Bankruptcy Proceedings.
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