https://www.thelocal.ch/20180615/popes-visit-poses-financial-headache-for-swiss-bishopric
8ch update
Snopes was founded in 1995 by David Mikkelson and Barbara Mikkelson, and ownership formalized in 2003 in Bardav Inc (Get it? Barbara + David = Bardav). Each had one share of the company. But in 2014 the two began divorce proceedings, which would of course necessitate negotiating ownership of their company and Snopes.
In August of 2015, Snopes entered a revenue-share/content and ad management agreement with a company called Proper Media, formed earlier that very year. In early 2016, Proper arranged to buy Barbara’s share of Bardav, replacing her as co-owner of the company. David Mikkelson attempted to kill the contract in spring of 2017 (wouldn’t you?), but Proper resisted, saying the terms of said contract were not fulfilled. In the meantime, it is apparently holding onto the site’s revenue and parts of its infrastructure.
To me this sounds like an opportunistic takeover, but in addition to not being a lawyer, I also am not a businessman, so possibly I’m just naive. At the same time, Proper alleges that Mikkelson misused company funds and inappropriately managed Bardav otherwise. In a statement issued after the publication of this article, Proper wrote:
“Today’s post only confirms Proper Media’s allegations that Mr. Mikkelson has drained the company’s bank accounts and is unable to operate Snopes profitably without Proper Media’s expertise and management.”
The details are being cherry-picked by both parties, as generally happens in dueling lawsuits (not to mention when a divorce is mixed in), so I don’t want to give too much credit to either side here.
But the bigger picture to me is this: Snopes itself is valuable enough (in terms of utility, not cash value), and Mikkelson’s leadership has been sound enough for years, that it seems worth giving him benefit of the doubt for now. To me the important thing is that Snopes continue its work, as it has done for decades, and it’s unlikely things would remain the same if it’s put under the control of some shady “content” company.
The Snopes crowdfunding effort has already netted 100 grand and counting, half of which was raised while I wrote this article, so clearly others feel the same way, even if it’s not quite the “ransom” situation described. We need websites like Snopes, now more than ever. No one said it would be simple.
Update: I spoke with Snopes’s David Mikkelson about the situation. He contests just about everything alleged by Proper, including the idea that it owns half of Bardav and Snopes.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/24/snopes-seeks-crowdfunding-in-ownership-battle/
https://www.courthousenews.com/fact-checker-snopes-owners-accused-corporate-subterfuge/
http://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snopes-COMPLAINT.pdf
http://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snopes-Green-COMPLAINT.pdf
The dispute started with the 2015 divorce of Mikkelson and his then-wife Barbara. The couple shared 50-50 ownership over Bardav, until Barbara sold her stake in July of 2016 to the five directors of Proper Media. At the time, those directors were Christoper Richmond, Drew Schoentrup, Ryan Miller, Vincent Green and Tyler Dunn.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/technology/sd-fi-snopes-minuteorder-20170823-story.html