For the past two decades Sean “Diddy” Combs has been synonymous with the Ciroc brand of Vodka – and he’s made a fortune off of his partnership with the alcohol brand.
Last month, Media Take Out reported that Diddy filed a lawsuit against the company that owns Ciroc, and yesterday the company responded by FIRING Diddy, and making some explosive allegations towards him.
Yesterday the liquor giant Diageo PLC – a multi billion dollar conglomerate – said it was severing ties with Sean “Diddy” Combs after they filed a suit alleging Diageo had not supported joint ventures involving Ciroc vodka and DeLeón tequila.
Diageo owns the Ciroc brand, but paid a huge annual licensing fee to Diddy – which is now gone. They also funded a joint venture with Diddy for DeLeon vodka.
Diddy was the first to file suit, Media Take Out learned. According to the billionaire mogul, he claims the the company, which also distributes Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan, neglected Ciroc and DeLeon. He also alleged Diageo had undermined the business by marketing Ciroc and DeLeón as “urban,” rather than something for the general market.
Yesterday the company responded, by firing Diddy.
The company said it would no longer be working with Diddy, who over the years has launched a clothing line and restaurants and has a stake in the Revolt TV cable network.
Here’s their full statement:
“We are saddened that Mr. Combs has chosen to recast a business dispute as anything other than that and chosen to damage a productive and valued partnership.
Mr. Combs’ bad-faith actions have clearly breached his contracts and left us no choice but to move to dismiss his baseless complaint and end our business relationship.
Mr. Combs has repeatedly undermined our partnerships and threatened to publicly defame Diageo if we did not meet his unreasonable financial demands.
Diageo believes strongly in the CIRÔC and DeLeón brands and remains committed to their success, which is why we tried for years to salvage the broken relationship with Mr. Combs.
We funded the purchase of DeLeón for the joint venture and proceeded to invest more than $100 million to grow the brand. Despite having made nearly a billion dollars over the course of our 15-year relationship, Mr. Combs contributed a total of $1,000 and refused to honor his commitments.”
Wow, this is messy.
