FAYETTEVILLE : Ex-manager’s firm buys assets of Athletic World Advertising
Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008
The assets of Athletic World Advertising of Fayetteville have been sold to Springdale-based Game On, a company formed recently by a former Athletic World manager. Athletic World Advertising employees were told Wednesday afternoon that the company is being closed and the employees have lost their jobs, a local television station reported. Two top company officials refused comment but did not dispute the reported closing or job losses. The company employed about 120 people at its Fayetteville and Tulsa locations. It sold advertising for sports posters and schedule cards for high school and college athletic departments nationwide. The apparent closure on Wednesday came on the same day the Bank of Fayetteville served writs of execution on three local banks in an effort to collect on its $ 745, 947 judgment against the company. This move effectively froze the company’s cash in those banks.
Ken Sheeman, attorney for Athletic World Advertising, said the company intends to make sure all its employees get their final checks. The details of the sale of assets were worked out Thursday afternoon, he said, and the deal includes paying the company’s employees.
Mark McQueen, the president of Game On, did not return telephone messages seeking comment. McQueen is accused in the lawsuit filed by Bank of Fayetteville of drawing an excessive salary and misrepresenting the financial status of Athletic World Advertising when he worked there.
The bank filed the lawsuit in July against Athletic World Advertising and Brick Wade Ogden, brother of the company’s founder, the late Greg Ogden, who died Aug. 18, 2007.
The bank got a summary judgment against the company last month after suing the company for failing to make payments to the founder’s brother, who had pledged these payments to the bank.
In December 2000, Brick Ogden sold his stock in the company for payments totaling $ 1. 75 million over 10 years. The stock redemption agreement requires the company to make substantial monthly payments to Ogden through 2010.
The bank loaned $ 1. 03 million to Brick Ogden on Dec. 12, 2006. The debt went into default after the company stopped making payments to Ogden required under the redemption agreement, the suit alleges.
Ogden assigned his interest from the stock agreement to the bank as collateral on his loan. Ogden lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands, according to the lawsuit.
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