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Estate of Ultra Festival Co-Founder Loses Stock Fight

By Celia Ampel
October 02, 2017

The company that licenses the brand for Miami's Ultra Music Festival won a key appellate dispute against the estate of co-founder Alex Omes. Florida's Court of Appeal, Third District, has ruled that Omes' brother, Carlos, will not be appointed president of Ultra Enterprises Inc. and will have to accept the court's valuation of Alex Omes' shares, which was about 2% of what Alex Omes argued it should be. Omes v. Ultra Enterprises, 3D16-338.

The Ultra festival draws hundreds of thousands of electronic dance music fans to downtown Miami for three days each March and has other events across the world. The festival got its start in 1999, when Alex Omes and co-founder Russell Faibisch put together a one-day concert for about 10,000 people. As the festival took off, Faibisch became concerned Omes was using his Ultra connections to compete with the company on the side, according to court records. Omes was ousted as president of Ultra in 2010 for self-dealing.

Shareholders agreed in 2012 to give the company the right to redeem the shares of anyone competing with Ultra. The directors voted to redeem Omes' 30% stake in the company, which they valued at $1,200 per share. Omes countered that his stock was worth more than $111,000 per share, and sued Ultra and its owners.

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