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MX1 sale dispute heats up

March 6, 2017

By Chris Forrester

Last December, SES, which now owns the former playout and facilities company RR Media, commenced litigation against three former senior executives at RR Media, including the CFO, and alleging that the trio deliberately set out to steal its customers and had stolen commercial secrets.

SES paid $242 million (€280m) for RR Media and incorporated the business into its SES Platform Services subsidiary and then re-named the business MX1.

Now the three have responded with their own suite of allegations, saying that the departure of so many customers stemmed from “shoddy management by the company and the result of revelations about illegitimate payments and illegal conduct”.

The counter statement, reported in detail by Israeli newspaper Globes, alleges that RR Media was itself engaged in deceit, fraud, bribery and wasting the company’s money. Further, the allegations include charges that CEO Avi Cohen (who is now running the merged MX1) was involved in paying “under the table” bribes to clients and agents, and that now that the alleged bribes have ceased, business is falling away.

The law firm representing SES/MX1 say that the allegations are simply the defendants throwing mud at SES/MX1, and as well as being completely false are irrelevant.

Globes is also reporting that SES is separately pursuing a legal action against RR Media’s former CFO Shmuel Koren, alleging he concealed information from them and deceived and defrauded SES.

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