Contributed Post
The recent Rick Fox and Amit Raizada drama has taken a new turn as a new piece titled “Echo Fox investor Amit Raizada responds to Rick Fox’s allegations”. An anonymous individual who claims to be a major Echo Fox investor has accused Echo Fox CEO Rick Fox of lying in a recent interview with journalist Richard Lewis.
The claim is sure to make matters worse, not just for Mr. Fox but also his company that was once valued over $100 million dollars and is about to be sold for $30.25 million to Kroenke Sports.
Echo Fox has still not fully recovered from the scandal surrounding investor Amit Raizada’s outburst as well as its recent sale of the company’s LCS spot but as new information comes to light it seems that the sale was due to mismanagement by Fox and his financial troubles.
The anonymous source also notes that the sale of the Echo Fox’s LCS spot had nothing to do with Amit Raizada’s outburst. Instead, Riot Games was displeased by the fact that Amit Raizada’s recent debt conversion was not cleared with Riot Games ahead of time. While Raizada removed himself from the company after his offensive email became public, he later took advantage of the fact that Jace Hall, who had invested in Echo Fox’s debt, was desperate to sell it off to anyone who wanted to buy it. Amit Raizada purchased the debt and used the opportunity to return to the company that had sought to oust him as disliking somebody is never grounds for dismissal but what you say certainly can be.
The unnamed investor also notes that there is more to the selling of Echo Fox’s LCS spot that initially meets the eye. It was reported at first that Echo Fox would be selling its LCS spot to Kroenke Sports and Entertainment. However, Dick Clark Productions later made an offer for the spot as well.
In his recent interview, Echo Fox CEO Rick Fox claims that there was a stalemate when deciding which buyer to sell the LCS spot to. The anonymous investor, on the other hand, insists that Mr. Fox was intent on selling to DCP or going to an auction because he did not want to sell the LCS spot to Kroenke. However, all the other Echo Fox investors were in favor of selling to Kroenke, so Fox reluctantly agreed to go along with their wishes. While Rick Fox has stated that his desire to put the spot up for auction would have been a profitable one, the anonymous source makes it clear that none of the investors thought this was a wise course of action.
Taken and quoted from the eGaming website on the ordeal Raizada stated: “Rick has been blatantly lying about anything he can come up with to get any kind of camera attention,” Raizada told WIN.gg. “He knew he’s a celebrity and he could get in front of everyone and come up with a sad story about how the business guys screwed over the athlete. But that’s not the case. He screwed the investors over.”
Over the past six to seven months, Raizada says, investors have watched Rick Fox diminish the value of Echo Fox from $150 million last year to its latest selling price of $30.2 million. That change represents a steep drop and a disappointment for any investor, though the ultimate reasons for the drop in value have become a point of contention.
According to confidential emails Raizada shared with WIN.gg, other investors have also demanded answers and solutions from Rick Fox.
When asked for comment regarding Raizada’s words in this interview, Rick Fox did not respond.
Finally, the anonymous investor asserts that Echo Fox is heading downhill. Echo Fox is only selling its League of Legends Championship Series slot and not its other assets. However, the anonymous source insists that the company is doing poorly and predicts that the end of the team is not far off. The anonymous investor makes it clear that Rick Fox is to blame for the company’s problems.
Naturally, it’s hard to know if the anonymous source is being sincere but as more and more people come forward and emails are disclosed it does seem that Rick Fox didn’t have the best intentions for the company and was using Raizada as a scapegoat which seemed to work until Raizada spoke up and put his money up to save the company and help them find a buyer that all the partners except for Fox agreed on. After all, insiders from the organization have confirmed the source as credible and his legal counsel has confirmed that he is a “major investor” in Echo Fox. However, his comments do help shed some light on the Rick Fox & Amit Raizada drama.
As we know, this has become an ongoing problem that Echo Fox cannot seem to get away from no matter how hard it tries. It appears that it should have been relatively straightforward. However, Amit Raizada is extremely good with business and has a history of succeeding in the business world to the point that there are videos of Fox praising Amit for his hard work and working too hard to ensure the companies success while he acted as the face of the company. He has seemingly had no trouble finding a way to re-invest in a company that was eager to try and replace him because of Fox’s financial trouble and to which he saw this as an opportunity to run over his long-time best friend but in the end it’s looking like in this battle he’s being outfoxed.
While Raizada still has his companies and investment arms, Fox is undoubtedly enigmatic. As we can see, he has done a lot with his company in a short amount of time and was the face of the company. However, it does appear that financial management is not his forte. It would certainly be sad if Echo Fox faded amidst controversial allegations and accusations; however, it seems the company may indeed be heading in that direction. Even Fox has not offered any guarantees about the company’s future, stating only the company intends to continue to be involved both traditional sports and the esports industry.
