$59 million bid offered for Rogers archives

An Atlanta investment group has offered to pay $59 million for essentially all of the photo archives once owned by John Rogers, the receiver in lawsuits against Rogers said Tuesday.

The firm, Red Alert Media Matrix Inc., is familiar with the photo archive business and would continue the operations in central Arkansas, said Michael McAfee, the receiver.

"Their idea is to come in and build it back to what it was," McAfee said. "If it works out it will be a fantastic deal because they will move back to the levels of employment that used to exist. But there is a lot of work that needs to be done. I don't want to get anybody's hopes up."

Rogers once employed about 100 workers, but now there are only six working for the businesses, McAfee said.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza on Jan. 5 appointed McAfee the receiver in a case filed by First Arkansas Bank & Trust of Jacksonville against the Rogers firms Sports Card Plus, which does business as Rogers Photo Archive; Planet Giant; and Digital Stock Planet.

Rogers no longer has ownership interest in the companies, McAfee said. Rogers and his wife were divorced last year, and she was given ownership of his businesses, although there are others with smaller interests.

Rogers has estimated he has collected more than 60 million photos and negatives from about 50 newspapers worldwide. He has an estimate that the photo collection is worth about $300 million.

But Rogers has been unable to convert the collection into profits. Piazza was told Jan. 5 that the businesses had no cash flow and they were out of money. Rogers owes First Arkansas Bank $14.2 million, the bank claimed in its lawsuit.

Rogers bought the photos from newspapers with the promise that he would digitize the photos free of charge for the papers. In exchange, he received the prints and negatives, which he sold at auctions or over the Internet.

Rogers is eager to see the terms of the offer so he can evaluate it, said Brett Myers, Rogers' Dallas attorney.

"From John's perspective, this looks like a legitimate offer," Myers said. "John thinks it's low compared to what he thinks [the assets are] worth, but he considers it a legitimate offer. He certainly hopes that the deal can go through."

Even though Rogers considers the offer low, "it's the offer that's on the table," Myers said.

"If that deal hopefully closes, obviously all the debt will be taken care of," Myers said. "And it's my understanding there would be a significant amount left over for the investors. I don't want to say this is a slam dunk, but we're pursuing it like any other deal."

McAfee is in "active conversations" with several other suitors, he said. He declined to say how many other offers may be made.

"There is a lot of activity right now," McAfee said. "I'm not sure any of it's going to close, but we're trying to close everything we can."

Red Alert's letter of intent has a target of the end of February to close the deal, McAfee said.

"It's a complicated deal," McAfee said. "We have a lot of due diligence to get through on both sides. It would be great if it closed quickly, but I would rather close it right than close it fast. That's the intention of everyone involved in this."

Red Alert has examined the inventory, and it has copies of the inventory appraisals, McAfee said.

In most cases, contracts that newspapers made with Rogers would be transferred "as they are permitted to do" if the photos are sold to another group, McAfee said.

Fairfax Media Management, which owns newspapers in New Zealand and Australia, sued the businesses last month. Fairfax has an arrangement that as licenses to its photos are sold over the years, Fairfax would get 50 percent of the revenue, said Richard Ramsey, a Little Rock attorney who represents Fairfax.

Business on 01/14/2015

Upcoming Events