In a statement released in Berlin on Tuesday, October 2, 2012, the second largest news agency in Germany, DAPD, announced that it has filed for bankruptcy and that its seven subsidiaries should do the same. What a bombshell!

DAPD has won renown in the past three years for the incredible determination shown by its owner Martin Vordenwülbecke and his partner Peter Low to conquer the news market (text, photo, video) first in Germany, and then in France, with its Summer 2011 purchase of the Sipa Press photo agency.

According to Der Spiegel online, 299 of the 515 employees of the DAPD group learned on Tuesday that they would be laid off and their September salaries not paid. The judicial proceedings will allow them to receive their salaries for October and November through the Employment Agency of Germany. An official receiver has been appointed.

Today the question is, Sipa: Trojan Horse or Bucepahlus?

Michel Puech

Read the full article on the French version of le Journal.