Almost a yr and a half after United Expertise Company accused one in every of media’s most heralded dealmakers, Michael Kassan, of misappropriating practically $1 million in enterprise funds for private use, the 2 events are placing an finish to their authorized drama.
“UTA and Michael Kassan have agreed to amicably finish their dispute,” a UTA spokesperson and Kassan’s lawyer, Sanford Michelman, mentioned in a joint assertion shared with ADWEEK.
They didn’t disclose the small print of the association.
Requested how he feels now that the dispute is behind him, Kassan informed ADWEEK, “I really feel good. I really feel good as a result of I typically have a optimistic perspective and I’m an optimistic man. And I be ok with the prognosis for the enterprise that I’m constructing”—a nod to the momentum behind his new media consultancy, 3C Ventures, which launched final yr amid the conflict with UTA.
UTA declined to remark past the assertion.
The expertise and leisure company acquired Kassan’s media advisory agency MediaLink in December 2021 for $125 million.
It was a partnership UTA co-founder and then-chief govt Jeremy Zimmer had excessive hopes for, noting in 2023, “Because the creator financial system continues to blow up, and as manufacturers wish to lean increasingly more into creators and influencers, it provides us a a lot greater seat on the desk.”
However the deal got here crashing down final March after Kassan unceremoniously departed the corporate, citing a breach of contract. UTA, nevertheless, mentioned that Kassan was fired for misappropriating firm funds.
What ensued thereafter was an intense authorized battle between the 2.
Kassan claimed in a lawsuit filed in March 2024 that UTA violated guarantees made as a part of the MediaLink acquisition, and in a separate submitting went after UTA’s lawyer Bryan Freedman for alleged defamation.
UTA filed swimsuit the identical day as Kassan, alleging that the exec had handled firm cash as his “private slush fund.” The company claimed that Kassan didn’t uphold his fiduciary duties and pulled funds immediately from the corporate’s enterprise checking account, in some circumstances spending this cash on lavish private bills.
In June of final yr, Kassan introduced the launch of 3C Ventures.
3CV seems to be thriving, having grown to round 35 staff and servicing upwards of 60 purchasers, in response to Kassan. The corporate confirmed up in pressure on the advert business’s most prestigious annual occasion, the Cannes Lions Worldwide Pageant of Creativity, final month with a splashy, $3 million beachfront activation.
Requested about his legacy at MediaLink, Kassan mentioned: “The earlier firm was the primary draft, and 3CV is the edit. I wrote a playbook 20 years in the past, iterated on that, and I proceed to iterate on a playbook that I wrote.”
