Things appear to be looking a little better for the beleaguered and once might dance music conglomerate SFX Entertainment that has recently been teetering on a potential bankruptcy. SFX has settled its lawsuit, which alleged that the current Chairman and CEO Robert Silllerman stole the idea behind the company.
Sillerman was being sued by EDM promoter Paolo Moreno, who is a manager at Disco Donnie Presents, artist manager Lawrence Vavra and Moreno's brother, Gabriel Moreno.
Terms of the deal are not being disclosure, but according to Billboard, the settlement agreement was signed on Jan. 22, just two weeks before the case was set to go to trial.
Lawyers on the behalf of the plaintiffs told Billboard that they "are very satisfied the settlement."
The $100 million lawsuit was not looking for SFX after losing several key battles along the way.
The Morenos and Vavra sued SFX, Sillerman and the company's chairman of strategy and development Sheldon Finkel in 2014, claiming to have a joint agreement / partnership over the concept to built the EDM version of a Live Nation. Their idea included purchasing seven or eight different companies and put them under one umbrella. Sillerman allegedly reneged on his agreement to provide the plaintiffs with equity in SFX.
SFX attempted to dismiss the case, but the case moved forward with new emails being provided as evidence against SFX.
SFX is currently in a deep hole financially. Its stock price towards the end of day on Tuesday, Jan. 26 sits at $.11, despite receiving $20 million in emergency funding from Canadian private equity firm Catalyst Capital Group. It has hired a consultancy firm to weigh options that include assets sales, debt restructuring and bankruptcy.
It still has another outstanding lawsuit by shareholders who allege Sillerman made "false and misleading statements" in his attempt to take the company private. One fire has been put out, but there is still a lot of work to be done to save SFX.
