House of Pain Hostile Corporate Takeover

[BendtheBar]

http://www.ironmanmagazine.com/blogs...-new-partners/

“About 17 years ago; I started HOUSE OF PAIN. It has been my great pleasure to meet most of the best weightlifters and fighters in the world. We have sponsored almost 8,000 events, and too many fighters and weightlifters to count. Earlier this year; I took on new partners to help us take the HOUSE OF PAIN brand to the next level. We were so excited!

Unfortunately, they were not completely honest with me about their plans. They do not want to sponsor events or lifters, and prefer to change the style to something a bit more ‘generic’ so that it can be sold in stores. Their plans will sever HOP ties to the weightlifters and fighters that we know and love, and I cannot abide this change.

They waited until we went on vacation, then fired Kris and I, and changed the locks on the HOUSE OF PAIN building! They fired some HOP employees, and told others that we had quit. Our HOP employees knew that we hadn’t quit, but we were still locked out. Lawyers got involved, because it is a complex thing to fire an owner like this, but it looks like it will stick. I am sick.” – Rick Brewer, the founder of HouseOfPain.com, by way of email communication this morning

“Our attorney told them that even if we could not return to HOP; all HOP-sponsored events must continue. We had several big events scheduled, and this Saturday (for one example) – the HOUSE OF PAIN APF TX Cup was to be held in our new HOP building. We have been working to make sure that we honored all of our event agreements, but last night – they cancelled all events and said they would not allow the Powerlifting meet to occur in the new HOP building! This was the last straw, because this harms hundreds of our close friends. If you have any comments, feel free to call my ‘partners’ at # 972-475-0770 (Adam, Matt, & Greg).


I walk away from HOP with a heavy heart, but I am proud to have known the best lifters and fighters in the world. Thanks for all of the memories; I hope to see some of you again.
Rick Brewer
HOUSE OF PAIN
Only the strong survive!
www.houseofpain.com”

[BendtheBar]

Must have been a big deal brewing with the big box stores.

[Jen]

Wow, thats unreal.

[ricka182]

Doesn't sound right. The original HOP owners need a better lawyer.

[Beverly McD]

Sure hate it for him. He worked for years to make HOP a well known name.
He's a smart guy. I'm betting whatever he decides to do next will be successful.

[Beverly McD]

Henry Thomason is planning on being at the APF Texas Cup mentioned in the article. He's looking for a 12+ squat. Amazing

[_J_]

Originally Posted by ricka182

Doesn't sound right. The original HOP owners need a better lawyer.

Depending on the particulars of the parntership agreement, the quality of their lawyer might not matter. Some commonly used partnership agreements basically allow the majority of the partners to "buy out" or "freeze out" one of the other partners for a predetermined amount of money, in essence firing the partner, leaving the majority partners as the only owners.

Some points I always made with corproate clients (I went through a long checklist):
--Be careful who you get into business with. Know them well.

--Protect yourself in the agreement, so that you cannot be frozen/bought out absent some kind of misconduct, as opposed to a simple business disagreement.

--If you don't want something in your business changed, make sure all agree to it in the agreement.

--Have an specific exist provision in the event there are irreconcilable disagreements among the partners about the most basic tenants of the business.


If there is any attorney failure here, it is most likely to have happened on the front-end, when the partnership agreement was drafted. Some of the important provisions I pointed out above were most likely never discussed.

[ricka182]

^^ I'm still calling B.S.

Do the new owner a-holes actually expect anyone to follow the new HOP? Wouldn't anyone with knowledge of the takeover just stay away, therefore eliminating any growth from the site?

They could also organize a very public protest at the HOP. If they got enough people to come down and support them locally, making it well known the corporate takeover, the new owners might feel some pressure. Might not do anything, but it would certainly highlight yet another problem with this country. If I was a judge and this case came before me, and I was not a lifter, I would side with the original owners, and fine the new guys for being deceptive.