While I arguably have a reputation as a “Taylor Swift hater,” there are legitimately parts of Taylor Swift’s life and business which I admire greatly. She is, in my opinion, one of the savviest businesswomen in the music industry. Does she have great advisors? Sure. But Taylor has shown us time and time again that she’s in those meetings, she’s negotiating for herself, and she knows her own worth. Not only that, she’s not afraid to say that she doesn’t know something or to ask questions. Which brings me to this: Taylor managed to avoid FTX, unlike dozens of other celebrities. As it turns out, Taylor was the only one in those meetings asking the right questions.
Taylor Swift’s inquisitiveness saved her from jumping on the doomed FTX bandwagon. More than a dozen celebrities, including NBA star Stephen Curry, NFL player Tom Brady, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, tennis legend Naomi Osaka, and popular TV show Seinfeld co-creator Larry David are named in a November 2022 class action lawsuit filed in Miami. The complaint blames FTX and its paid brand ambassadors for actively participating in the “offer and sale of unregistered securities in the form of yield-bearing accounts,” as well as abetting fraud “designed to take advantage of unsophisticated investors from across the country, who utilize mobile apps to make their investments.”
Swift avoided getting dragged in FTX’s collapse because the singer did her due diligence, and asked one important question: “Can you tell me that these are not unregistered securities?”, according to South Florida attorney Adam Moskowitz. Moskowitz, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, discussed the case in this week’s episode of The Block’s The Scoop podcast.
$100 billion: How much FTX was willing to pay the celebrated singer-songwriter. They had reached the late stages of negotiating a sponsorship deal a little before the crypto exchange crumbled last November. A report in Rolling Stones cites an anonymous source saying Swift “would not, and did not, agree to an endorsement deal,” but smaller-scale partnerships, like a ticketing arrangement involving NFTs for her Eras Tour, was on the table. But she turned that down, too.
I’m sorry, they offered her $100 BILLION to endorse FTX? That alone would have made me sit up and ask some questions, because that number makes zero sense. Hey, Taylor, will you endorse Celebitchy as a blog for eleventy trillion dollars? What’s that?? You want to see if I actually have the money? ZOINKS! Still, it’s sad to see the list of names of celebrities who didn’t even do even a cursory investigation into what was going on. Good for Swift for avoiding it entirely. And she avoided the NFT sh-t too! LOL.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Isn’t her dad a Merrill Lynch big wig financial advisor? I can see him waving her off with the advice of, “if it’s too good to be true…”
At its height, FTX was worth $32 billion so they couldn’t have possibly offered Swift $100 billion. Maybe it was $100 million.
@tacky you’re right other sources are quoting the offer was $100 million. Makes you question yahoo news as a source that they are quoting $100 billion (which is ridiculous on many levels)
I can’t remember if it was with Merrill Lynch but you’re right he was some sort of investment banker I think and her mom was involved with mutual funds if I remember correctly. Not only is Taylor herself great with her business sense, but she has two parents who are/were in the field.
Her dad AND her mom both worked in finance. He was with Merrill Lynch and she marketed mutual funds.
taylor may be a good singer/song writer but I think her other strength is she’s a great businesswoman. she’s built her brand, made good decisions, and recovered from a lot of bad PR. she’s smart.
Agree!
Part of being a great business person is surrounding yourself with smart, savvy experts in fields you are not qualified to navigate. Sounds like that’s exactly what Taylor did because that question about unregistered securities probably came from a legal or financial expert.
She has said “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room”
Exactly. Any decent contract lawyer or financial advisor would have – should have – advised against the endorsement deal. The SEC has been warning people since 2017 that they considered this type of product an unregistered security and therefore any endorsement would be considered illegal and also expose them to liability. They even made a special call-out to celebrity endorsements.
My question is, who were those other celebs listening to that they all got the green light?
I believe it was 100 million! Not billion.
Yeah, it was $100 million: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/19/taylor-swift-asked-ftx-about-its-legality-before-balking-on-100-million-sponsorship-deal-lawyer-claims/
She IS savvy, and that’s still not chump change!
Even 100 million sounds suspiciously high for one celebrity endorsement for a new company right? Like it it was Nike offering 100m for a ten year endorsement deal but for a company that is still basically new, to throw that kind of money out for one celeb would be a red flag to me.
“ Taylor managed to avoid FTX, unlike dozens of other celebrities. As it turns out, Taylor was the only one in those meetings asking the right questions.”
She was the *only* one who asked the right questions?! Like, none of the rest of them thought to have a financial advisor along when they discussed endorsing FTX?! That blows my mind. That said, Taylor did her homework and deserves a star for this.
They had all financial advisors. But there’s a difference between receiving advice and acting on it.
Also, finance bros can be no where near as smart as they or everyone else thinks they are. Their advisors could have been scammed too.
We’ve also seen examples in the media of celebrities who end up broke because their “financial advisor” is their childhood friend who knows nothing or is out to make a deal of their own
Taylor CARES about HER followers.
Good on Taylor for not only asking questions but zeroing in on the issue of selling unregistered securities. That is at the heart of the class action suit & the SEC complaint.
They are all going to hate her, because her due diligence is going to be used as proof that they should have done the same.
Taylor has shown such care for her Swifties.
Smart
She’s a smart one Taylor is.
Like that famous Jay-Z line: I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man.
Great quote reference @girl_ninja!
I am a bit of a swifty and I wish Taylor would pay attention to one of Queen B’s quotes too, “best revenge is your paper”
Considering they think the us leg of her tour will gross her about a billion dollars. I think she’s listened to that
Love her for this. Evidence shows that women in aggregate are better investors BECAUSE they ask questions… men tend to have more bravado and unwarranted confidence.
I wonder if there were other celebs who said no. Must have been.
Her music isn’t for me, but she’s an excellent popstar! She genuinely cares for her fans, time and time again I’ve seen her do things that show this.
Good for her! I’m glad she’s going to those meetings and asking those questions, especially after seeing all of those other celebs endorsing the same product.
I woulda thought Larry David would have been smarter than that, more suspicious and cynical too. At the end of the day it all just comes down to greed. I’m glad all these celebrities got their britches burned. I hope Matt Damon in particular is ashamed of himself for those god awful ads.
I respect the hell out of Taylor Swift. Even when everyone was piling on her, history has proven her right. John Mayer is a predator. Katy Perry is not a nice person. And Kanye West turned out to be a literal Nazi.
This shows that financial literacy is essential, and that it’s not taught nearly wide enough. Taylor is lucky to have had that running in her family. And that no amount of access and money helps if you are not equipped to ask the right questions (athletes and celebrities who came into money from less privilliged circumstances).