Jay-Z made Bacardi an offer he thought it couldn’t refuse — he was willing to spend $1.5 billion to buy full ownership of D’Usse, but still got rejected.
TMZ broke the story … Jay’s in a legal war with Bacardi, trying to force the company to buy him out of their 50/50 partnership in the luxury cognac line. But, according to new docs, it was Jay who first tried to buy out Bacardi, back in December 2021.
Here’s what’s weird, months before his offer … Jay says he and Bacardi exchanged valuations of the brand. They were light years apart — Jay felt his half of D’Usse was worth $2.5 billion, and Bacardi thought it was only worth a measly $460 million!
According to the docs, Jay went back to the drawing board and then in December he offers to buy out his partner for the $1.5 bil … which, keep in mind, would be 3 times what Bacardi said it was worth. Sweet deal, right?
Apparently not to Bacardi, since it rejected the offer — and that’s why Jay-Z thinks there’s something shady going on here.
In the docs, Jay basically accuses Bacardi of unduly influencing a third party that was called in to appraise the brand. It’s unclear what number the appraiser came up with, but it’s a fair bet it’s closer to Bacardi’s value than Jay-Z’s.
We say that because Jay’s now asking the court to modify the result of an arbitration both parties went through to settle the sale. As we’ve reported, Jay’ is ready and willing to part ways with D’Usse … he simply doesn’t want to get cheated on the price.
There’s a hearing set for Thursday afternoon in NYC to address the matter.
