Back in 2012, Jay-Z launched a cognac brand called "D'Ussé" as a partnership with liquor behemoth Bacardi. For the next decade it was a great partnership. Jay handled marketing. Bacardi handled production and distribution. And since this was Jay-Z, it wasn't a lopsided partnership with the huge liquor conglomerate owning 95% and the celebrity doing all the work for a sliver. It was a perfectly equal 50/50 joint venture.
Unfortunately, that decade of prosperity ended in late 2022 with a flurry of lawsuits. The lawsuits centered around the overall valuation of D'Ussé. Bacardi wanted to buy controlling ownership of D'Ussé, and Jay was totally open to that concept… but they were very far apart on how much the brand was worth.
According to court filings that were made public last month, at some point in 2022 Jay offered to sell his entire 50% stake to Bacardi at a $3 billion valuation. In other words, he was offering to accept $1.5 billion to sell out and walk away. How kind of him!
Bacardi rejected that valuation claiming that it already had a handshake deal with the rapper from December 2021 in which he agreed on a deal at half the valuation. AKA, a total valuation of $1.5 billion. Bacardi claimed Jay arbitrarily doubled the price.
In his lawsuit Jay accused Bacardi of purposely mismanaging D'Ussé to drive the brand's value down.
Yada yada (it's Friday night at 10pm as I write this)… everything came to happy conclusion today…
(Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
A Deal Was Reached
After months of back-and-forth bitter legal fighting, today Bloomberg Law revealed that Jay and Bacardi had squashed their beef.
According to the reported terms of the agreement, Bacardi bought 25.1% of Jay's 50% stake, leaving him with 24.9% and them with 75.1%. The purchase price valuation used in the transaction was apparently $3 billion – the amount Jay demanded after initially agreeing to half that much in December 2021. So it sounds like Jay got his way.
Assuming Jay sold basically 25% for his stake at a $3 billion valuation, that means he just earned a cash windfall of…
$750 million
After taxes that will add around $300 million to Jay's previous $1.3 billion net worth. So let's call his new net worth $1.6 billion. But that's not the whole picture!
At a $3 billion valuation, Jay's remaining 24.9% stake is worth…
$747 million
So even if we're very conservative, Jay's current net worth is at least $2 billion. Easily enough for Jay to have achieved the coveted "multi" billionaire status.
Richest Celebrity in the World?
Even before this deal, with his previous $1.3 billion net worth, Jay was already the richest rapper on the planet.
At $1.3 billion, he was the eighth richest celebrity in the world behind Kim Kardashian's $1.4 billion and ahead of Paul McCartney's $1.2 billion.
At $2 billion, Jay-Z is now the fifth richest celebrity on the planet. The only celebrities who have larger fortunes are:
- #1: George Lucas – $10 billioin
- #2: Steven Spielberg – $8 billion
- #3: Oprah Winfrey – $3.5 billion
- #4: Jami Gertz – $3 billion
Who is Jami Gertz? And how is she a $3 billionaire actress? As an actress Jami is best known for starring in movies like "Less than Zero", "Twister" and "The Lost Boys" and the TV series "Square Pegs." But more importantly, since 1989 Jami has been married to private equity honcho Tony Ressler. Tony has earned billions over the last three decades as the founder of two private equity companies, notably Apollo Global which has more than $300 billion under management. In April 2015, Jami and Tony bought the Atlanta Hawks for $730 million.
