Ozy Media announced company shutdown amid misconduct and disinformation controversies

Ozy Media is closing down, and this was announced by its chief executive officer, Carlos Watson. It was reported that he informed the staff last weekend that through voting, the board decided to shut down the company.

As per CNBC, the CEO informed the staff about the decision through a 5-minute phone call. A source who asked not to be named as the conversation was private said that Watson sounded heartbroken during the short call and did not answer any questions.

The halting of the business will affect 75 full-time workers. Ozy Media’s spokesperson was not available when contacted for comment. At any rate, it was The New York Times that first reported about the media and entertainment firm’s decision.

“At Ozy, we have been blessed with a remarkable team of dedicated staff,” Ozy Media’s board told the New York City-based publication. “Many of them are world-class journalists and experienced professionals to whom we owe tremendous gratitude and who are wonderful colleagues. It is therefore with the heaviest of hearts that we must announce today that we are closing Ozy’s doors.”

After the announcement, the employees were not yet informed if there would be any severance pay or extended benefits resulting from the sudden closure. While there is no word about this, another source said that freelance writers would be getting their last paychecks next week.

The Times further reported that Samir Rao, the company’s chief operating officer, allegedly impersonated a YouTube executive on an investor call with the investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs. The bank was said to be considering investing $40 million in Ozy Media.

“Following reports of conduct that is not in keeping with our standards or values, Ozy has engaged Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP to conduct a review of the company’s business activities,” Variety quoted the Ozy Media board as saying in a statement last week. “We have also asked Samir Rao, Chief Operating Officer, to take a leave of absence pending the results of the investigation.”

At any rate, it was reported that in addition to the fake investor call, the media firm is allegedly also involved in other misconduct such as illegally inflating its monthly unique visitors which is a metric commonly used by media firms to bring in advertisers.

And this was not all as CNBC also mentioned on Thursday that even Carlos Watson, the company’s founder and CEO, also lied when he said that Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne invested in Ozy Media when they did not.

It was further claimed that even former producers were lied to as well. They were told that Ozy Media was filming a program for A&E but they later discovered this to be a lie.