Immediate threat of closure: The court-appointed trustee, Chen Berdichev, has asked the court to cease the operations of the newspapers 'Makor Rishon' and 'Maariv', along with the nrg website, next Thursday - May 1. This is if the antitrust commissioner, David Gila, does not approve one of the transactions.
Throughout the period, Maariv - which is to be sold to Eli Azur - Makor Rishon and NRG continued with limited skeletal operations designed to maintain a "going concern" until final approval of the sale. During the period, dozens of employees were placed on forced, unpaid leave, and a small group of employees continued to operate the operations on partial salaries.
On April 2, employees of Makor Rishon and NRG appealed to the commissioner, asking him to expedite the review process. "As you know, hundreds of salaried employees of the newspaper and the website have not received their salaries since the beginning of February 2014, that is, for about two months. In addition to them, there are dozens of freelance workers whose salaries have not been paid for four months or more," Gila wrote. "The uncertainty is becoming impossible. Since the freeze on proceedings began, we as employees have been doing everything we can to preserve the newspaper, its activities and its quality. However, the length of time is becoming unbearable.".
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In his application to the court, Berdichev requested that all activities be stopped and the employees be fired. "The trustee and his attorneys are in continuous contact with the Antitrust Commissioner's team, while clarifying the bleak picture in the companies in light of the failure to receive approval," the trustee wrote to the court. "Despite fully clarifying the seriousness of the significance of the failure to approve the sales transactions, as of the date of this application it is not possible to receive a position from the Antitrust Commissioner, either regarding the approval of the sales transactions or regarding the expectation of a decision.".
The trustee emphasized: "It will not be possible to continue operating the newspapers and the website based on the current cash flow.".
A discussion on the subject has been scheduled for next Thursday, at 1:00 PM, with the participation of a representative of the Antitrust Commissioner.
