What’s going on inside B Riley?

I wrote extensively about B. Riley a few months ago. I believe the thread may have been purged because there were some negative speculations about the future of a publicly traded firm in our industry, so I can understand why. Anyway, the titular B. Riley has entered into a number of transactions over the years which are highly convoluted and possessed a number of conflicts of interest in appearance, regardless of whether in conflict of interest in fact occurred. These deals are a matter of public record. They were playing all sides of the deal, advising clients and counterparties at the same time, buying things for themselves, lending money to themselves, etc., all at the same time. Franchise Group has been a debacle. The hedge fund stuff is a debacle. Just read up on Badcock, Conn's, and Prophecy Asset Management.

The company has had substantially negative net income since FY 2022. The market cap is tiny now (~$130MM), which basically means that the market is pricing in a vast preponderance of probability that the equity is worthless, with the residual being Hail Mary call option value if they can sell off the subsidiaries at a gain. They have over $2B in debt. They rely on trust and deal flow, and no one is going to trust them now. B. Riley is toast, and is trading from 52-week low to 52-week low. Anything that the juniors tell you is a sideshow. In my experience, juniors are often very bad at detecting when a company is swirling down the drain. Read the news, read CapitalIQ, read the filings. B. Riley is toast.