Al Gore Sues Al Jazeera America Over the Current TV Sale
Al Gore isn't done with Al Jazeera America, the company that bought his failed cable network from him. The former U.S. vice president/climate change activist/Snowden apologist is suing the Qatar-backed news network over tens of millions of dollars he says they owe him from the sale of Current TV, which was purchased by Al Jazeera for $500 million in the January 2013.
"Al Jazeera America wants to give itself a discount on the purchase price that was agreed to nearly two years ago," lawyer David Boies said in a statement Friday. "We are asking the court to order Al Jazeera America to stop wrongfully withholding the escrow funds that belong to Current's former shareholders."
Bloomberg reported that Gore and former Current CEO Joel Hyatt are claiming Al Jazeera tried to $65 million in escrow funds tied to the sale. Gore personally stands to make an estimated $100 million from the sale of Current TV.
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Gore owned a 20 percent stake in the network he helped start in 2004. During Current's launch, Gore had told reporters the network would be "transformational" and targeted toward younger viewers. When Current failed, however, Gore found himself skewered for making $1.2 million every year in salary and bonuses, and then for handing the keys to Al Jazeera, a network connected to the oil-rich (read: not environmentally-friendly) state of Qatar.
"Our outside counsel is reviewing the complaint," an AJA spokesperson told Deadline. "We think it relates to a commercial dispute between former shareholders of Current Media and Al Jazeera America."
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/business/2014/08/al-gore-sues-al-jazeera-america-for-millions/378612/
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