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Web Video Company OneUp Sports Struggling, Faces Lawsuit Over Missed Payments

Web video company OneUp Sports "looked like one of the next hot sports media startups" last summer, but since then has been "unraveling," according to Mike Shields of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The company backed out of an acquisition of Insider Sports it had agreed to in October, while employees and distributors "say they haven’t been paid." The company also faces "multiple lawsuits, including one accusing OneUp of not fully paying" for CineSport, which it acquired in '15. It is a "dramatic tale, even for an early-stage company in digital media and technology, where stars can fade as quickly as they rise." OneUp CEO Daren Trousdell said, "This is us biting off more than you can chew. I still believe in everything we wanted to do. We could not get the economics to work." Trousdell said that OneUp is "down to about a dozen employees from 75 last year," and "plans to move forward with a refined strategy for the start of baseball season." When OneUp's deal to purchase CineSport closed, CineSport Founder Gregg Winik "stayed on with OneUp to continue running the video business." But several months later, Winik said that OneUp "started missing deferred payments to CineSport that were guaranteed as part of the acquisition." Winik in a lawsuit alleges OneUp has "missed payments" to him and other CineSport shareholders totaling $650,000. However, Trousdell said that Winik was fired "because the business wasn’t living up to performance expectations and because Winik was in breach of his contract." In the past six months, multiple former staffers and freelancers said that they "hadn’t received paychecks from OneUp for wages they are due." Trousdell said that he "expected to pay all money owed to full-time employees by the end of the month" (WSJ.com, 3/28).

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