Flo Rida won a two-year court battle over a breach of contract dating back to 2010. His company, Strong Arm Productions, sued Celsius Holdings Inc. in May 2021, claiming they violated their agreement with him, and now he was awarded $82.6 million in damages. The settlement includes 260K shares in the company, making Flo Rida a partial owner. Flo Rida was the brand ambassador from 2014 -2018 and is credited for getting the company established. The company claims that its success came after the endorsement deal ended due to other investments.
“I helped birth this company, and all we were looking for was some trustworthy people who acted as if they were family,” the rapper said. “And then when it comes down to the success of today, they just forgot about me.”
“Celsius is disappointed with the result and disagrees with the jury’s verdict, we intend to appeal based on several grounds,” a spokesperson for Celsius said. “This decision doesn’t take away from all Celsius has accomplished over the last several years and we look forward to achieving continued success and delivering quality products to our customers.”
Flo Rida’s attorney John Uustal, said during closing arguments that the “Right Round” rapper was looking for the 1% ownership he was promised. His legal team also argued that the partnership allowed Celsius to grow its product portfolio, including a powder product and a line called Celsius Heat.
“He loved the product, and it’s been a very successful four-year relationship,” Uustal told the AP. “There were some benchmarks. He was supposed to get stock when certain things happened. And there became a dispute about whether those benchmarks had been reached. So that’s what this was about.”
“I’m still an owner in the company,” Flo Rida told the AP. “And when you basically planted the seed for something that is successful, you can’t help but have unconditional love.”
– Excerpt from an article for People by Brenton Blanchet. Read the full article here.
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