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Showing posts from February, 2016

Marcus Lemonis Really Does Use His Own Money; and He Should Stop With the Hand-Shake Deals

I like and respect Marcus Lemonis, who stars in the show The Profit . He's a smart, accomplished guy and knows what he's doing. In season 2, he visited A. Stein Meat Products in Brooklyn. A. Stein was struggling financially, had all kinds of problems, and Lemonis made an offer of $1 million for 50% ownership of the company. But it then came out that A. Stein was in worse shape than Lemonis had believed, and Lemonis withdrew his offer. But A. Stein did have something that interested Lemonis. They (it's complicated) owned trademarks (character and logo) in a hamburger brand called Brooklyn Burger. Lemonis offered $200,000 to buy the Brooklyn Burger trademarks/brand. As he usually does, Lemonis did not have a written contract but just shook hands on the deal with the A. Stein guys. Ultimately, Lemonis wired $190,000 to A. Stein. Well, it turns out that before Lemonis entered the picture, A. Stein had signed over a security interest in the trademarks to a lender, and A. ...