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Marc Lasry, a billionaire salesman, has resigned as Ozy Media chairman just three weeks after taking office, adding to the problems for the media company.
The online business has been in turmoil after a report in The New York Times interviewed its audience and revealed that one of its founders had made YouTube chief at a conference he convened with Goldman Sachs during a fundraising campaign. Ozy elected law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to re-evaluate his business this week.
Lasry, founder of hedge fund Avenue Capital and a member of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, invested in Ozy and joined the club following a $ 35m bid in 2019, the company said. He said at the time.
He was elected to Ozy’s chair earlier this month, saying he hopes to increase his finances and direct a new eight-year-old company.
But in a statement Thursday, Lasry said: “I believe Ozy’s progress requires knowledge in areas such as problem management and research, where I have no other expertise. As a result, I have resigned from the company.
Lasry’s departure follows the resignation of former BBC journalist Katty Kay, one of her co-stars, who said the New York Times’ report was “serious and very bad”.
Ozy’s other advertisers include German publisher Axel Springer, SuRo Capital and Emerson Collective, an organization led by Laurene Powell Jobs. The company has raised more than $ 80m since its inception, according to PitchBook data.
On Tuesday, testing company SV Angel gave its shares to the company after selling the seeds in 2012, one person explained. SV Angel and its founder Ron Conway declined to comment.
The New York Times also reported this week that Samir Rao, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer, made YouTube chief executive at a conference he invited with Goldman Sachs, who could be businesses.
Ozy confirmed that this had happened, saying it was due to a mental illness. The board asked Rao to leave pending the results of the company’s investigation.
Carlos Watson, senior, co-founder and member of Ozy’s team, earlier this week released a statement that included a statement from Lasry confirming that the committee was informed of Goldman Sachs’ call-ups and supporting his management. “The incident was a tragic one-time incident,” Lasry said in a statement.
Lasry is best known as one of the owners of the Bucks basketball franchise, which he bought with businessman Wes Edens in 2014. This year the Bucks he won Their first NBA tournament in 50 years, has been led by the league’s most important player Giannis Antetokounmpo.