By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The electric scooter company Bird said on Wednesday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection. Does that necessarily mean that next season’s contract with the City of Port Angeles is null and void? The company told KONP on Friday, the answer is, “No”.
To help it continue operating, the company has secured $25 million in financing from Apollo Global Management’s commercial lending unit, MidCap Financial, and the firm’s second-lien lenders. Bird Interim CEO Michael Washinushi said, “We are making progress toward profitability and aim to accelerate that progress by right-sizing our capital structure through this restructuring.”
Bird’s losses have been piling up in the last couple of years, though it’s done better than many others in the competitive “micromobility” industry. Even so, the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in September. That came after it admitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had overstated its revenue for more than two years; its founder, Travis VanderZanden, left in June.
Still, in an email to KONP, company spokesman Austin Mashburn wrote, “Bird will operate as usual during this process, maintaining the same service for its riders and upholding its commitments to partner cities.”
In late October, the Port Angeles City Council authorized a one year extension of the Bird Scooter contract for 2024, and City Manager Nathan West told KONP the company has indicated they plan to relaunch the program in the spring.