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SFX founder pens departing memo
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 1 April 2016
So, SFX founder Robert FX Sillerman officially stepped down as the bankrupt company’s CEO yesterday, and earlier this week sent a little message around his staff reminiscing about how they all worked together to build a grand monument of EDM goodness, and then drove it off a cliff. Good times.
Sillerman is being replaced as the firm goes through the bankruptcy process, the plan being that a new privately owned SFX cut free of most of its liabilities will come out the other side, under new management and with a new focus – likely prioritising the core festivals business – and with high hopes of turning its portfolio of still respected dance music brands into something closer to a profitable enterprise.
“As most of you are aware Thursday, 31 Mar will be my last day as CEO of SFX”, Sillerman wrote in his memo, published by Billboard. “The disappointment I know we all feel should not be the lasting impression that remains. We had a bold vision, a revolutionary one. That we stumbled along the way can never detract from the energy and hope that brought us all together”.
Ah, hope. If only you could monetise that. “As we enter this next phase, despite the place we find ourselves, there is much to be proud of”, he goes on. “It remains incumbent on all of us to refocus our energies and find the path to success that is out there. I am confident that with renewed discipline combined with passion and creativity that our original goals can and will be met”.
Sillerman becomes Chairman of the all-new SFX, which means, he says, “I remain available to help in any way that I can. I maintain both an emotional and financial interest in our company’s success and intend to participate as and when called upon. As such this is anything but a goodbye; rather a reset of roles with a renewed emphasis on collaborative success. While we aren’t where we wanted to be, and will be, it has been an honour and a pleasure”.
Indeed it has. Though I didn’t buy any stock in the company and see it slump in value to basically nothing. Still, most of the people who did were Wall Street gits who bought the “EDM isn’t just a bubble” myth, so, it probably serves them right. An honour and a pleasure it is, then.
