The troubled auction to sell Maxim is back on.
The owners of Alpha Media and Maxim magazine had already dropped Darden Media Group as a potential buyer even before the arrest Wednesday of convicted stock swindler Calvin Darden Jr. on charges that he had duped investors into making them think that it was his wealthy father who was buying the magazine (see story on his arrest, P. 3).
Now talks with the number two bidder, a joint venture involving Infinity Partners and Hilco Global, have also collapsed, sources tell The Post.
Alpha and its owners are trying to re-ignite interest from other underbidders in a last-ditch effort to get out from under the troubled magazine.
Each time a deal collapses, it knocks tens of millions off the price tag.
The allegedly fraudulent Darden group had won by agreeing to pay close to $30 million.
On Thursday, US Attorney Preet Bharara said that Darden had defrauded victims out of $8 million and was also attempting to defraud another victim out of $20 million.
The person he was said to be trying to dupe out of $20 million was Shane McMahon, CEO of YOU on Demand, recently dubbed the “Netflix of Canada.”
YOU on Demand had not returned a call seeking comment but talks with Darden had apparently gone nowhere.
By December, when the Darden group missed several deadlines to come up with the cash for Maxim, the owners decided to drop that bid and move on.
Unfortunately for Maxim’s distressed owners, the next round of bidders were originally in the unimpressive $10 million and lower range, sources said.
The “suitors” include some cash-free bids by a publisher willing to take the magazine and run it in exchange for a cut of future profits.