Luke Girgis alleges unfair termination, takes Vinyl Group to the Supreme Court
Former CEO of The Brag Media Luke Girgis is taking Vinyl Group to the NSW Supreme Court, alleging he was unfairly terminated following the sale of the business.
RELATED: Luke Girgis puts his reputation on the line in Vinyl Group legal battle – Tim Burrowes
At the end of 2023, it was announced that the ASX-listed music company, Vinyl Group, was to acquire The Brag Media and its network of mastheads and events, including TheBrag.com, The Music Network and Tone Deaf, as well as the license to Penske Media Corporation (PMC) titles Rolling Stone and Variety Australia and New Zealand.
The deal was completed on February 1, 2024, and Girgis, who was CEO of The Brag Media, entered into a full time employment agreement as publisher and managing director of the company.
Luke Girgis
By June 2024 however, Vinyl Group made leadership changes within the business, which saw Girgis’ departure. Then-general manager, Jessica Hunter, was promoted to head of The Brag Media, but has also since departed the business.
On Wednesday, Vinyl Group shared the news of the legal proceedings via an ASX announcement.
“The plaintiffs are seeking payment of a $2 million performance payment in connection with The Brag Media business acquisition and payment for lost remuneration and opportunity to receive a bonus and options, alleging that Vinyl Group is liable due to the termination of former employee and seller representative, Luke Girgis, having occurred without cause,” the announcement read.
Vinyl Group has “strongly” refuted the claim.
“Under the terms of the share sale agreement, the performance payment was contingent on specific financial targets being met and subject to Mr Girgis’ employment agreement not being terminated other than for cause or where Mr Girgis being convicted of an indictable criminal offence or any act of fraud.”
Vinyl alleged in the announcment that Girgis’ role was terminated because of “serious misconduct”. It provided no further detail and declined to comment when contacted by Mumbrella. Girgis has also been contacted for comment.
“These financial targets were not achieved by The Brag Media business, despite Vinyl successfully implementing operational improvements, reducing costs by more than $750,000 as previously disclosed, whilst growing second half CY revenues over the same period in 2023 by 12%. As a result, the Company maintains that no performance payment is due.”
Vinyl Group has said it intends to “vigorously defend” the lawsuit, and intends to countersue for what it claims are breaches of a share sale agreement.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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