UPDATE: October 17, 2011
Bethenny appeared on the Today show this morning to answer the recent questions about her credibility, prompted by Rob Shuter’s erroneous piece in the Huffington Post and the “Lost at Sea” episode, which has been disputed.
Matt Lauer stated Huffington Post has issued a statement of apology. There have been no new articles from Rob shuter.
Interesting factoid: Rob was supposed to be the guest on Lisa Wexler’s radio show Thursday afternoon, but cancelled. Wexler is the sister of the recently fired Jill Zarin, Bethenny’s arch-nemesis on the Real Housewives of New York.
Original Story:
The Wendy Williams Show also, for repeating Rob Shuter’s claims.
Some stories need to marinate for a while, and this story falls into that category. Rob Shuter known as NaughtyBut Nice Rob on the Huffington Post, got it wrong again.
I have been attending the Rob Shuter school of blogging ( no, I won’t call it journalism) for a while, so when he gleefully claimed Bethenny Frankel lied about how much she sold SkinnyGirl Cocktails to Beam, I didn’t report it…after all the mistakes he has made, especially when reporting on Bethenny, this friend of Jill Zarin’s and lately of Simon van Kempen’s, whose sour grapes over the firing of Alex McCord are barely beneath the surface, I decided to let this story “marinate”
Many people on twitter wanted Forbes Magazine to retract the statement they made last week about Bethenny grossing the third highest amount of money among female entertainers, after Oprah and Lady Gaga. But Forbes is, after all, Forbes, not Life and Style, so Forbes investigated again.
The following is what they found:
So how much did reality TV queen Bethenny Frankel sell her Skinnygirl cocktails to Beam Global for last year? Hollywood’s favorite new parlor game continues.
Last summer we estimated the deal was worth $100 million in a cover story. Others pegged it still higher. The latest to enter the fray is a Huffpo blogger, saying she got just $8.1 million.
But Rob “Naughty But Nice” Shuter’s math—based, it seems, on a faulty reading of Beam’s financials—appears to be a bit off.
Read the form 10-Q closely and you’ll find the $8.1 million is just the value of the goodwill attributed to the brand. “The $8.1 million was just the amount of intangible assets purchased in the Skinnygirl transaction, essentially the amount Beam paid for the Skinnygirl brand rights—not the total purchase price,” says Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy, who follows the company and worked with us on our original reporting.
In Shuter’s defense, figuring out celebrity finances isn’t for everyone, and the company is completely opaque about the deal. The actual price they paid for Skinnygirl is nowhere to be found in the 10-Q. Frankel won’t publicly say what it is, citing a confidentially agreement, nor will Beam, arguing that it’s done all it needs to do under generally accepted accounting rules. “We will continue to disclose accounting data as required to be included in financial filings,” says Beam Global spokeswoman Paula Erickson, “but do not expect that a black-and-white lump sum ‘purchase price’ figure will be made available. Suffice to say, this was not an $8.1 million acquisition.”
But even if the company won’t say what they paid, there are clues scattered throughout the document, and they bolster Forbes initial valuation, which was based on discussions with sources close to Frankel and estimates by beverage industry insiders based on their analysis of similar deals.
On page 5 of the 10-Q, for instance, Beam lists $39 million for acquisitions in the second quarter of 2011. “The only deal they announced over that period was Skinnygirl,” says Hottovy. “This means [Beam] paid at least that much for Skinnygirl [during that period].” He adds that there may be additional elements to the deal not accounted for or visible in company filings, including stock options that could bring Frankel additional long-term returns.
In addition to up-front payments for the acquisition of Skinnygirl, Frankel had told Forbes that she’d get what she called “on-going back end”—payments based on how well Skinnygirl’s cocktails sold after Beam took control. These kind of earn-outs are called “contingent consideration” in accountant-speak and are common in deals where the acquirer wants to incentivize the seller to stick around and help keep the business on track.
So how much is this part of the deal worth? Again, Beam’s SEC filing isn’t clear: “In future periods the company may be required to record contingent consideration in an amount not in excess of approximately $25 million,” according to the 10-Q.
Erickson said the $25 million mentioned in the 10-Q would be for “certain case volume thresholds following the acquisition” in other words, how much Skinnygirl booze they sold. And, according to Erickson, sales of Skinnygirl have exceeded expectations for 2011 and that threshold will be met this year.
That would bring the value of the deal to at least $64 million in this year alone, without accounting for any further payments or other compensation for Frankel. And Frankel will definitely be receiving more money down the road, says Erickson, though she’s coy about how much. “The acquisition was structured with various potential payout levels based on sales of Skinnygirl products,” she says.
Reached by phone late last night, Frankel once again refused to tell us the number. So what about $8.1 million? She laughed. “Come on. That it could be the fastest growing booze brand on the market and have sold for that little is just preposterous,” she says. “I’m going to be paying a hell of a lot more than $8.1 million in taxes.”
Oops there it is!
The problem? It’s the Huffington Post, with millions of readers. Reported by Arianna Huffington, it must be true. How Rob Shuter got a job with Huffington we don’t know, his lies were more harmless when he was with PopSugar. So Huffington owes the apology, not Rob. Yesterday, many on twitter tried to get him to retract and apologize, he knows he doesn’t need to, the damage is done. He’s just doing what he normally does: listens to his sources and makes up the rest.
As for his sources, are we sure it’s Jill Zarin? Pardon me, but neither Jill or any of the characters that work for her seem cerebral enough to read this financial statement, linked above. Who hates her success as much as Jill, has time for this type of thing, is cerebral, and has Rob’s ear? Hmmmm………
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would you be despersed if your husband forced you to take a huge mortgage under your name lol
A Discussion of the Purchase Price of Bethenny Frankel’s Skinny Girl to Beam
We are fortunate to have a guest blogger with the experience…
Slimy Rob Shuter wrote an article today about Teresa Giudice possibly getting a cooking show. I heard a rumor over the weekend that Rob was suspended but I couldn’t confirm it. That’s why I didn’t mention it in my comment two days ago. Unfortunately, that rumor turned out to be false. AOL/Huffington Post are making a big mistake by not punishing him in some way. Slimy Rob skates, for now.
Spymaster:For now, lol. Thanks for the update!
Hope you are right, Spymaster. Although the Huffington Post is hardly the New York Times, it’s still embarrassing that they give Shuter a forum.
It’s not just the Bethenny-hating that’s disgusting–the pro-Teresa stuff is awful too. And so transparent.
i think at this point that maybe Rob is on auto pilot.Still on “Team Jill”, but doing and “reporting” on things on his own, not at Jill’s behest. So same malevolent agenda. but entirely independent malicious actions. Unfortunately for Jill, ol’ Rob is now associated with her. So now this will be associated with her, even if she had nothing to do with it. And she just keeps looking worse and worse.
And NO excuse that HP has NO fact checkers. There isnt anyone there that can read financial filings?!? I get he is stupid, but it really isnt that tough. he just saw a reference to SG and made the stupid leap. Yeah, rob will be on a reeeeeeaaaal short leash.
OMG, Jill needs to get laid, get a life, SOMETHING. I’m sure her paw prints are on the “SHE WASN’T LOST AT SEA” story too.
Slimy Rob Shuter strikes again. AOL/Huffington Post is not happy with Rob right now. He still has a job but he is going to be watched closely from now on. Forbes is upset and they wouldn’t have given Rob Shuter the time of day if they knew he was a gossip columnist. They thought he was a real reporter and they took his allegations about the sale of Skinnygirl seriously. They investigated and of course, they found out that Skinnygirl sold for a lot more than 8.1 million. Rob Shuter will get fired, it’s just a matter of time. This is a pattern for him. If AOL/Huffington Post were smart, they would fire him right now. He is going to cost them a lot of money. Mark my words, there will be a lawsuit in there future because of one of his stories. He just doesn’t care. He went out of his way to try to destroy Bethenny Frankel’s career and he also tried to humiliate Forbes for putting her on the cover of their magazine. When Rob has a personal vendetta against a person, he will stop at nothing. Huffington Post didn’t actually hire him, AOL hired him for Popeater. When AOL purchased the Huffington Post, they just changed Popeater’s name to Huffington Post Celebrity. Since Huffington Post Celebrity is featured on the Huffington Post’s website, most people think that the story is coming from Huffington Post. The Huffington Post name makes all of the stories coming form Huff.Post Celeb seem credible. The question I have is who is so interested in how much money Bethenny Frankel made from the Skinnygirl sale and who told Rob about Jim Beam’s financials? I don’t think it is Jill Zarin THIS TIME but it wouldn’t surprise me if it is her. Rob was supposed to call into Lisa Wexler’s(Jill’s sister) radio show on Thursday afternoon but after Forbes issued their statement about Bethenny, I don’t think he called in. The subject was going to be about Bethenny lying to Forbes about how much money she made. Jill and her supporters won’t let it go, will they?
You were right, Rob Shuter was the guest of honor on Lisa’s show on Thursday 13, he was schedule to be there at around 5:30 but he never showed up. That didn’t stop Lisa Wexler (JZ’s sister) though to bash Bethenny until her heart was full, first minute of the show was pure B bashing and then at the end of the first hour while waiting to make connection with Rob, for 9 minutes she bashed not only Bethenny but Forbes magazine calling them irresponsible and all sort of things. Finally Rob never connected, he was already with his tale between his legs because around 5 p.m. that day, Forbes had already published their article supporting their original estimates.
I thought you would like to know that piece of information
I think it was the other queen, Simon van Kempen. He hates the fact that he’s no longer on television, hates Bethenny and her success even more. He’s been hanging out with Rob lately, trying to get a cameo on the next season. He’s the biggest famewhore of them all.Did you see the look on his face when LuAnn was singing on the finale episode? He is an attention whore!