Bankruptcy.. How Does It Work?

A few days ago, I was listening to the March 3rd EGM Live podcast where one of the reader mail asked who is Ziff Davis, the company that publishes EGM magazine. Well in brief, Ziff Davis is an American magazine publisher and Internet Information company. It was founded in 1927 in Chicago by William B. Ziff, Sr. and Bernard G. Davis. Then two days after the podcast, I read from the Wired Game| Life blog that “Ziff Davis Files For Bankruptcy.” It’s quite the coincident how I just found out about them.

I hear about bankruptcy often but what really happens when someone, some company files for one? Do the company close? Do they keep publishing the magazines? What’s going to happen to my podcast?! Well apparently, the podcast keeps coming since a new one just showed up today. The 1UP website is still running and the Ziff Davis website mentions nothing of its sort. At least not from the main page. I’m not about to sniff through their site to find out about their bankruptcy.

This calls for a Wikipedia moment. The US bankruptcy code has various chapters. Chapter 11, the one which Ziff Davis filed for, permits “reorganization under the bankruptcy laws”. While business ceases to operate under chapter 7, chapter 11 is “usually an attempt to stay in business while a bankruptcy court supervises the reorganization of the company’s contractual and debt obligations”.

Ah ha! In other words, I still get my podcasts.

Sources:
EGM Live [March 3rd Podcast]
Wired Game|Life [Ziff Davis Files For Bankruptcy]
Wikipedia [Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code]

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Tagged as ziff davis