It's over, it's over - Adidas is ending its collaboration with controversial rapper and entrepreneur Kanye West, who goes by the name of Ye.
He had increased the pressure on Adidas with repeated anti-Semitic statements.
The share price fell at times by more than 8 percent.
After a thorough examination, the Dax group made the decision to "terminate the partnership with Ye with immediate effect, to stop the production of Yeezy-branded products and to stop all payments to Ye and its companies," Adidas announced on Tuesday.
According to reports, Adidas sees itself legally in a position to do so due to the statements that are damaging to its reputation.
Ilka Kopplin
Business correspondent in Munich.
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Roland Lindner
Business correspondent in New York.
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Benjamin Fisher
Editor in Business.
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The American entrepreneur has been working with Adidas for around ten years and has been designing shoes and clothing for the German group under the “Yeezy” brand since 2016.
Adidas manufactures and markets the products, and West receives royalties for them.
The group described the partnership – the contract actually runs until 2026 – as “one of the most successful collaborations” in the history of the industry.
According to analyst estimates, the products, which cost several hundred euros, bring Adidas sales well in excess of a billion euros, which is in the high single-digit percentage range of group sales.
Recently, however, more and more companies have publicly turned their backs on West, and the sporting goods company threatened to become the only remaining partner.
At the beginning of the week it became known that the artist agency CAA West had terminated the collaboration.
The film studio MRC announced that it would not publish a documentary about the rapper that had already been completed because it could not support content "that would give its platform a broad impact".
"I am Adidas"
The world's largest music company Universal Music wrote on Twitter at the beginning of last week that there was no place for anti-Semitism "in our society" and that Universal was committed to fighting anti-Semitism and all other forms of prejudice.
West was not explicitly mentioned in the tweet, but Universal still referred to a partnership with the non-governmental organization American Jewish Committee.
Universal owns the Def Jam label, through which almost all West albums have been released.
Released in August 2021, Donda was the last new album for which Def Jam collaborated and distributed with West's own label GOOD.
However, the rights to various old releases are likely to remain with Def Jam (his first of 11 studio albums to date, "The College Dropout", was released in 2004).
Not an unusual constellation in the music industry: especially in the time before streaming, when the production and marketing costs for labels were significantly higher, the rights to recordings were often assigned for many years.
In return, the label takes on all or most of the costs and tasks in this constellation.
Last but not least, West has also received various advances worth millions.
Many different constellations are possible today, in which a label, for example, only takes on individual services such as distribution, invests less and rights are only assigned briefly or not at all.
In return, more work but also a significantly higher share of the income remains with the artist.
Superstars always have a better negotiating position anyway.
West last complained in a series of tweets in the summer of 2020 about not owning the rights to some recordings and spoke of "enslavement", among other things.
In return, more work but also a significantly higher share of the income remains with the artist.
Superstars always have a better negotiating position anyway.
West last complained in a series of tweets in the summer of 2020 about not owning the rights to some recordings and spoke of "enslavement", among other things.
In return, more work but also a significantly higher share of the income remains with the artist.
Superstars always have a better negotiating position anyway.
West last complained in a series of tweets in the summer of 2020 about not owning the rights to some recordings and spoke of "enslavement", among other things.
West is undoubtedly still part of the superstar ranks.
On Spotify alone, he has around 51 million monthly listeners.
A very strong value, although it has not had any major, sustained chart successes in the recent past.
He has also only played a few concerts in recent years, including some very special concept shows.
There hasn't been a real tour for a long time and there is no longer an active partnership with Universal on the label side.
West released the successor to "Donda" ("Donda 2") at the beginning of this year on his own and only on the so-called "Stem Player", a $200 player and not on the usual streaming services or as a sound carrier.