LAST CHANCE:

Five passes left to attend the Digiday Publishing Summit

SECURE YOUR SEAT

Big Village Media and EMX Digital file Chapter 11 proceedings

Big Village Media, formerly known as Engine Group, and its ad tech entity EMX Digital have filed for bankruptcy protection, a development that will have creditors pondering if they’ll ever receive payment.

Chapter 11 papers filed in a District of Delaware Court this week (Feb. 8) by Big Village and EMX Digital, plus affiliated entities, list its estimated number of creditors between “5,000-10,000.”

The same documents listed its estimated assets between $10-50 million while estimated liabilities are in the range of $50-100 million with the largest creditors including a roster of names including Pluto TV, Yahoo, and Google.

Of the 30 largest creditors listed in the filing, sizes of the claims vary between $6.6 million (CPX Interactive) and $348,527 (Roku) with the former filing for payments in mid-January according to separate court papers seen by Digiday.

The developments follow the departure of senior executives including the chief executive of both Big Village — its former CEO Kasha Cacy recently joined Known — and EMX Digital with Michael Zacharski understood to have left the company last week.

EMX has closed most of its operations; AdExchanger reported that a “small skeleton crew” remains at the entity, while Zacharski was unable to respond to Digiday’s request for comment by press time with the developments coming a week after Big Village’s Australia also appointed administrators.

Seasoned observers of the sector will recall how the downfall of EMX Digital, a supply-side platform, is evocative of the 2019 bankruptcy of Sizmek — then a full-stack ad tech offering before it was sold off piecemeal — whose decline was interpreted as symbolic of the “end of an era” at the time.

Similarly, publishers will be reminded of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic prompted a number of ad tech vendors citing force majeure clauses in their contracts in developments that left media owners receiving less than they had bargained for in the immediate term.

More in Media

What to expect at the Digiday Publishing Summit, September 2025 edition

Here’s a sneak peek at the topics that will be discussed onstage during the Digiday Publishing Summit next week.

Animation of a person scrolling on their phone.

Betches brings its viral voice to a new style destination for millennials and Gen Z

Betches Media yesterday introduced Betches Style, intended to offer style guidance to its largely Gen-Z and millennial women audience.

Roblox programmatic advertising

Roblox’s growth comes with growing pains between creators and ad sales

This year’s RDC came during a particularly busy period for Roblox, which is rapidly expanding its advertising business.