Jay-Z's 6-year flip of Tidal's streaming service is complete -- he just closed the deal to sell the majority of the company to Square for $350 million ... a pretty good return on his initial investment.
Square, the financial services company owned by Jay's pal, Jack Dorsey, is now firmly in the music streaming biz. Jack had announced back in March that he planned to take Tidal off Jay's hands, but sources familiar tell TMZ they just closed the deal Friday morning.
Remember, Jay-Z launched Tidal back in 2015 for $56 million in a partnership with several artists, including Beyonce, Rihanna, Kanye West, Madonna, Alicia Keys, Calvin Harris, Chris Martin and others.
For its $350 mil ... Square gets 80% ownership of Tidal, along with licensing deals with the major record labels and all the artists/owners will remain with the company too.
We're told Jay and Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez, who helped broker the deal, will stay on board to help run Tidal.
Over the last year we've seen Jay and Jack hanging out several times -- sometimes sipping wine together in the Hamptons -- and now we know what they're discussing ... major tycoon stuff.
Jay's made serious bank of his Tidal investment. He'd previously sold 33% of it to Sprint back in 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
As Jay-Z famously said almost 20 years ago, he's not a businessman ... he's a business, man!!!
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on February 16, 2015 at 10:00am
Video After The Jump
If Adidas' plan was to build a big buzz for the just released Kanye WestYeezy Boost sneakers, they should consider their job well done.
Between 3000 and 9000 pairs of the shoes (depending on which source you believe) quickly sold out after hitting retail outlets on Saturday, February 14.
Kanye has promised that eventually production of the sneakers will catch up with demand and preached patience to sneaker heads. If that's the case, why not just roll out 200,000 pairs to begin with?
"It's because of the hype by not putting much quantity out there," DJ Jack Da Ripper, a self professed sneaker collector, told CNN Money. "If everyone wants it they should just produce more, but they don't. They only put a limited quantity out there."
The lack of available product has created a market for people who are willing to pay$2,000for a pair on eBay.
After a bit of a wait we finally get a look at Kanye West's Adidas Yeezy Boost sneakers.
According to GQ, only 3000 pairs will be sold at $350 apiece. The website called yeezy.supply, has a countdown clock indicating a countdown to February 12. The date coincides with the beginning of New York Fashion Week, where West is expected to officially unveil the shoes.
With only 3000 pairs being made available to the public demand will be high. Hopefully people will be civilized when they go on sale. We don't need or want to see the kind of madness associated with the sale ofMichael Jordanretro sneakers.
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on February 19, 2013 at 10:30am
Video After The Jump
BRUSSELS - Police are looking for eight men who drove onto the tarmac of Brussels international airport and stole millions of dollars worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane.
Brussels prosecutor's spokeswoman Anja Bijnens said Tuesday the armed and masked men crashed through the security perimeter fence around the airport with two cars.
Within minutes they made their way to the plane, took the cache of stones and drove off into the darkness.
In a stunning raid on a loaded commercial aircraft, eight armed robbers got away with as much as $350 million of gems
The robbers, who wore outfits resembling dark police clothing, got away with 120 parcels, mostly containing diamonds but some also holding precious metals.
Brussels Airport spokesman Jan Van der Cruysse tells Bloomberg News the diamond thieves apparently were efficient, needing just three minutes at the plane in an operation that took only 11 minutes total.
"It was very well organized, very swift, efficient and well planned," Van der Cruysse tells Bloomberg News in a telephone interview.
Sources say the gems could be worth between $50 million and $350 million dollars.
Police found a burnt-out van close to the airport later Monday night but said it was still looking for clues.
Here is a list of some previous high-profile jewel heists.
2005: Thieves threaten the guards and hijack an armored car from Dutch carrier KLM's cargo ramp at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, making off with millions in diamonds and jewelry. Subsequent media reports put the value of the loot at up to $100 million. "It was a secured area of the airport, so it's a big question how those people could get there," an airline spokesman said at the time.
2003: Robbers tape over security cameras, disable the alarm system and break into the high-security underground vaults of the Diamond Center in Antwerp, the world capital of diamond-cutting, getting away with an estimated $100 million in goods. After prying open 123 of the 160 vaults, the thieves stood ankle-deep in a pile of diamonds, gold, jewelry, stocks, bonds, cash and lockboxes, police said. The bounty was so abundant they had to leave a lot behind.
2008: While Christmas shoppers stroll outside the posh Harry Winston jewelry shop near Paris' famed Champs-Elysees, armed thieves - some dressed as women and wearing wigs - enter the store and steal gems and jeweled watches worth up to $85 million, according to French police.
2009: Two elegantly dressed men rob the Graff Diamond Store in London's posh Mayfair district and carry away necklaces, watches, rings and bracelets worth more than 40 million ($62 million at today's exchange rate), according to Scotland Yard.
1994: Machine-gun-toting thieves steal $45 million in gems from the Carlton Hotel in Cannes on the French Riviera.
2004: Twelve pieces of jewelry worth about $31.5 million, including the 125-carat "Comtesse de Vendome" diamond necklace, are stolen from a store in Tokyo's Ginza district.
2007: 120,000 karats in diamonds, worth $28 million, are stolen from safe-deposit boxes in an ABN Amro bank in Antwerp, Belgium, according to police.
2008: Masked thieves drill a tunnel into jeweler Damiani's showroom in Milan, Italy, making off with gold, diamonds and rubies worth an estimated $20 million. The company did not confirm the value of the stolen items.
2002: Thieves break into a Dutch science museum, where an exhibition promised to show visitors how to tell real diamonds from fakes, and made off with necklaces, tiaras and precious gems on loan from other museums estimated to be worth $12 million.
1993: Robbers manage to open only five of the underground vaults at the Antwerp Diamond Center, yielding loot estimated at $4.55 million.
French Montana has achieved what just about every artist wants when they start their career. The South Bronx rapper is now famous and has more money than he can possibly spend, but that success has come with a price.
During a recent interview with TheBoomBox, French revealed that his five year marriage couldn't survive his rising fame.
"Man, I couldn't do it; that's why we got separated," French explains to The BoomBox. "At first it was smooth, but then as much as people think that money changes you, it's changing them around you. A person ain't gonna treat you the same now that they think that you think you somebody."
French said constantly being around groupies and sexy women also caused a strain.
"You around so many beautiful women, that's a conflict too," he says. "It's just about finding somebody that understand the game, what you're into. But then on the flip side of the coin, you gotta understand their game, what they into. There's a flip side to everything. You can't expect to make all this money and not go through problems. You can't expect God to give you everything you want without taking something away."
The Bad Boy artist also discussed his outrageous spending habits, which include purchasing a fleet of cars and a $350,000Rolls-Royce Ghost.
"When you finally get the chance to buy it, you buy it," French said. "You don't really give a f*ck about what it cost, whatever. Just to get it off your chest. Then people hit you with the stupidest shit every time you about to buy it. They don't help you, they just tell you, 'Well, you only live once.' How many times you heard that one? 'You only live once.' Before you know it, you dead broke. F*cked up in the game."
}