Several senior executives have resigned from London-listed company Iconic Labs to join Greencastle Media Group, the division of UK private equity company Greencastle Capital that owns digital media brands Joe, Her and Lovin.
It is understood that a group of up to 10 people from Iconic Labs will move to Greencastle and Iconic’s management services agreement to run the brands will come to an end. Greencastle will instead manage its media interests in-house.
As well as Joe, Her and Lovin – which it acquired in two separate deals in 2020 – Greencastle also owns Joe.co.uk and the London Economic.
Iconic Labs chief executive John Quinlan, chief business officer Liam Harrington and chief operating officer Samuel Regan-Asante are among those to have joined Greencastle, which is controlled by Paul O'Donohoe and former Iconic Labs chairman David Sefton.
“It makes perfect sense to take the business-critical people across,” said Mr O’Donohoe, who is currently co-chief executive of the Irish media interests alongside Mr Quinlan. “They know the brands inside out.”
Iconic Labs was last month served with a London high court claim by European High Growth Opportunities Securitization Fund in relation to a financing arrangement. The board of the media and technology company then released a statement denying “allegations and assertions” made about its performance by a Cyprus-based investment company, OTT Holdings.
In its response, Iconic Labs noted that, if the composition of its board were to be changed, as OTT sought, it would give Greencastle Capital the right to terminate the management services agreements that “constitute the large majority of the revenues” of Iconic. It added that if OTT’s proposals were to come into effect, the board would resign.
‘Commercially viable’
Mr O'Donohoe said he was pleased with how the Irish brands were progressing since the company completed its deal to buy the Irish operations of Joe and Her in October 2020 and added Lovin Media Group to its stable a month later.
“We have good people who are talented at their job and it is commercially viable,” Mr O’Donohoe said of Greencastle’s media business. After some staff departures, it now plans to seek “young, diverse” talent on the content side, with 10-15 management and creative hires expected in the Irish market.
“There are not too many young media companies looking to recruit,” he said.
Former Maximum Media sites Joe and Her recently agreed a strategic partnership with Mickey O’Rourke’s Premier Sports, which will see the brands become the exclusive digital home of sports media rights held by Premier.
Mr O’Donohoe said Mr O’Rourke had been “an absolutely brilliant partner for us” and that Greencastle’s aim was to build “a sustainable model that isn’t dependent on one vertical”.
