Seven candidates have filed a takeover offer for the magazine VSD, placed in early February in compulsory liquidation, according to data published Thursday on the website of the registry of the Paris commercial court.
Among the potential buyers are the employees of VSD, the regional weekly "
La Manche Libre
", the publisher "
France Daily
", the press group "
Heroes Media
" and David Layani, founder and president of Onepoint, a consulting firm in digital transformation.
The magazine VSD had been placed at the beginning of February in compulsory liquidation with resumption of activity until March 31, date of the decision on its possible resumption.
VSD emerged from nearly two years of receivership in April 2021, its recovery plan having been endorsed by the commercial court.
The receivership was initiated in August 2019, a year after the purchase of the title by Georges Ghosn from the Prisma group in June 2018.
According to Georges Ghosn, current director of the magazine, VSD is now almost in balance, but is struggling to cope with cumulative liabilities of 3.9 million euros, due to the rise in the price of paper and Energy.
According to him, VSD employs eight employees (including himself) and a dozen freelancers.
It is distributed in 35,000 copies for sale by number, and has 10,000 subscribers.
VSD was launched in 1977 by Maurice Siegel, former director of Europe 1 radio. In difficulty, it was bought in 1996 by Prisma, which sold it in 2018 to Georges Ghosn, former boss of France Soir.
From that date, it became monthly, whereas it was initially weekly.
Mr. Ghosn has also sued Prisma and its former owner, the Bertelsmann group, over the terms of the sale of the magazine in 2018.