The Onion, the satirical news company that repeatedly spoofed conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, won the award bankruptcy auction for control of his media empire – including Infowars, the far-right conspiracy website that served as Jones’ primary online platform.

Jones announced the sale on on Thursday morning.

“I just found out 15 minutes ago that my lawyers and my staff met with the U.S. Trustee regarding our bankruptcy this morning and they said they were closing us down even without a court order this morning,” he said. Jones said.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’ll be here until they come and turn off the lights,” he added.

The Onion plans to shut down Jones’ Infowars and rebuild the website featuring well-known Internet humor writers and content creators, according to a person with knowledge of the sale. About an hour and a half after the sale was announced, the Infowars website was shut down.

Jones, 50, one of the most prominent and financially successful alternative media personalities, built a small empire from a radio show turned Internet video operation centered around the Infowars brand that focused on false and often bizarre claims about big conspiracies and government. mischief.

Details of Wednesday’s auction, including the amount offered for Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, and associated assets, were not immediately known. Funds generated from the sale are intended to satisfy creditors of Jones’ estate, largely families of victims of the attack. 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to whom he must pay damages in the event of a verdict of defamation.

The Sandy Hook families filed lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas, claiming Jones defamed them on his show and inflicted emotional distress on them by repeatedly suggesting the shooting, in which a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adultswas a hoax.

Juries found Jones liable for defamation and awarded the families nearly $1.5 billion total in their lawsuits, but they were unable to recover anything from Jones, who claimed he could not can’t afford such a huge amount. He filed for bankruptcy end of 2022, and a judge in June allowed him to liquidate his personal assets to help pay the verdicts.

The sale had the support of several Connecticut families victims of the Sandy Hook shooting who were part of the lawsuit.

“Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear on a massive scale,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Connecticut families. in a press release. “By divesting Jones from Infowars’ assets, The Onion’s families and team have performed a public service and will significantly hinder Jones’ ability to do further harm.”

Anti-violence organization Everytown for Gun Safety said it will be the exclusive advertiser for The Onion’s new venture in a multi-year deal.

John Feinblatt, the group’s president, said in a statement that he hoped to “reach new audiences ready to hold the gun industry accountable for its contribution to our country’s epidemic of gun violence.”

Since April, The Onion has been led by general manager Ben Collins, who previously covered misinformation and conspiracy theories for NBC News, a beat that often involved covering Jones. Collins introduced several changes intended to monetize the company, including subscriptions, hosted live events and the return of physical copies of the newspaper and its television parody, Onion News Network.

In June, Collins responded to calls from his online followers that The Onion was buying Infowars with a meme “considering the matter.”

Those interested in acquiring Jones’ media company had submitted their final offers to federal court-appointed administrator Christopher Murray, who was charged with choosing the best offer, but not necessarily the highest.

The identities of the potential buyers were secret because they had to agree to nondisclosure agreements in order to receive the bidding documents.

The auction companies that organized the sale said that there were “no restrictions on the use of the property acquired in the bankruptcy order” and that the winner had the choice whether or not to continue operations from Infowars.

On his show this week, amid calls for listeners to buy subscriptions and the nutritional supplements he sells, Jones painted a picture of his potential buyers, describing a group of anonymous bidders as supporters friendly people who would allow his show to operate normally. Others, he said, were “bad guys” who would put Infowars out of business.

While saying he would continue broadcasting through an alternative channel if a new buyer ordered him to close, Jones emphasized that he would be hampered by the loss of his brand, website and equipment, among other necessities.

“All you leftists celebrating the end of Alex Jones and Infowars are fools,” he said. “Just look.”

At the auction, Infowars’ production rights and materials, the Infowars store, domain names, production equipment and other assets, including a Terradyne armored truck and a Winnebago camper, could be purchased in whole or in part, according to the company ThreeSixty Asset Advisors. Jones broadcasts from the Austin, Texas area.

The auction is part of Murray’s initiative:orderly liquidation process” in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, which oversaw the final phase of the case against Jones, stemming from the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

Appropriately for the satirical website, The Onion’s press release announcing the sale was written in the voice of a CEO of Global Tetrahedron, a fictional evil corporation created by Onion staff. Former tech executive Jeff Lawson took the name Global Tetrahedron for his real company that acquired The Onion from G/O Media in April.

“Through it all, InfoWars has shown an unwavering commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society – values ​​that resonate deeply with all of us at Global Tetrahedron,” the statement said.

Jones founded Infowars, which operates under Free Speech Systems, in 1999. The company itself held about $6 million in cash and $1.2 million in inventory, according to previous court documents from June.

Families in Texas and Connecticut have fought in court on the liquidation process, with concerns over how the money will be distributed. Still, they said, Jones’ loss of his business brings some responsibility for his past words.

At his trial in Texas in 2022, Jones generally accused the “corporate media” of distorting and misrepresenting him, but did not specify how.

While Jones also said he believed Sandy Hook was “100 percent real,” he used the ongoing litigation to galvanize his listeners as he deals with the loss of Infowars.