At the same time, Pacific and parent company Blue Dolphin Enterprises found themselves the target of lawsuits, including some dealing with foreign rights and royalties for Pacific-published creator-owned titles. In August 1984, with the company $740,000 in debt, the Schaneses informed their staff that they would all be out of work by September. According to Steve Schanes, Pacific's publishing arm was still seeing profit at the time of the closure, but it was outweighed by the losses of the distribution arm, and he and his brother lacked the business expertise to sell off part of the business.