After two months of intense speculation, the comics business finally has some reassurance that the bankrupt Diamond Comic Distributors will not simply shutter. Instead, it is slated to be acquired by Alliance Entertainment—a company that began in music retail in 1990 before expanding into wholesale. Following a decade of successful mergers and acquisitions, Alliance now has its hands in a handful of other businesses that include the distribution of music, movies, video games, collectibles, and other entertainment products.

Alliance submitted the winning bid for all Diamond assets—which are currently being sold through a court-supervised bankruptcy process, and still subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland—earlier this week. Those assets include Diamond Comic Distributors U.S., Alliance Game Distributors, Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles, and Collectible Grading Authority, which, Alliance said in a release, reach more than 5,000 retail storefronts, ranging in size from mom-and-pop comics and game shops to big box stores and e-tail giants.

“With their legacy of exclusive titles, deep retail relationships, and strong presence in comics, tabletop games, and collectible merchandise, these businesses are highly complementary to our existing distribution and fulfillment model,” said Alliance CEO Jeff Walker in a statement. “This transaction will position Alliance to deliver long-term value by bringing together some of the most iconic fan-driven brands in the world with the industry’s most efficient and scalable distribution platform.”

Despite Alliance’s long history in the entertainment business, it’s a new player in the comics landscape. And with the acquisition, it has entered into an increasingly complicated realm: distribution of printed matter in the U.S. Over the past several years, Diamond, the one-time undisputed king of comics distribution to comics shops, has seen a sharp rise in competition from upstarts including Lunar Distribution, which now distributes for both DC Comics and Image Comics.

Established trade book publishers including Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster have also broken into distributing to the direct market in addition to the typical books channel. Via its subsidiary Diamond Book Distributors, Diamond also operates in the books channel—a space currently facing its own fair share of distribution issues.

Since Diamond announced its bankruptcy, things have only gotten worse for the distributor. Image Comics, the third largest publisher of comics in the direct market, ended its wholesaler relationship with Diamond just days after the bankruptcy filing. Mad Cave Studios, Massive Publishing, Vault Comics, and others also announced partnerships with Lunar shortly thereafter. The game of distribution musical chairs continues, but one thing is certain: the exclusivity that Diamond once boasted in the direct market distribution sector is gone forever.

Then there’s the matter of Diamond’s outstanding debts to creditors. Those include Penguin Random House, to which it owes $9.2 million; Disney Consumer Products, which it owes $1.7 million; Lunar, which Diamond owes $500,000; and such other publishers as Simon & Schuster, Viz Media, and Wizards of the Coast, among others. Whether they will receive any of the money they are owed by Diamond from Alliance following the acquisition remains to be seen.

In its release, Alliance noted that it intends to finance the acquisition “through an amendment to its existing $120 million revolving credit facility, which it expects to increase to $160 million” and to close in April, subject to final bankruptcy court approval and customary closing conditions. The company was also fairly conservative in its estimates over the financial advantages of the acquisition, predicting just over $200 million in revenue and over $10 million in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization) in fiscal year 2026. In its financial report for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2025, ended December 21, 2024, the publicly held Alliance reported sales of $393.7 million and net income of $7.1 million.