The founder of Unilad and LadBible is suing the current management of the Unilad brand and website for a one third share of the business.
Alex Partridge has lodged papers at the high court in London which claim that Liam Harrington and Sam Bentley, who currently own the Unilad website and control its Facebook page, have breached a partnership agreement signed in 2013. He is seeking the dissolution of the partnership and sale of assets from the company and a share of the proceeds.
Partridge founded both the Unilad and LadBible Facebook groups in 2010. The content posted on the groups, in particular Unilad, was widely criticised for being misogynistic, including articles allegedly promoting sexual violence.
Separately, Partridge sold the LadBible brand, including its Facebook group, to Alexander Solomou in 2012, and the site has sought to become a more respectable media company with less offensive content and a number of spinoffs.
Unilad under Harrington and Bentley has pursued a similar path, with Harrington recently telling the Guardian that the site was investing in socially responsible journalism.
Partridge said a resolution of the dispute could either lead to the sale of the business or a damages award.
Asked what would happen to Unilad if he won, he said: “It would carry it on ... all assets would be sold and the money be split.”
Unilad has yet to file its defence challenging Partridge’s account.
However, in a statement the company, registered as Bentley Harrington Ltd, said: “There is no shared association at all between the original brand and our current business model. For the avoidance of doubt, we consider that the claims made are vexatious, factually incorrect, and defamatory.
“The company has at all times acted in accordance with its obligations and looks forward to continuing the evolution of Unilad.co.uk as a force for change. Our priority is protecting the new Unilad and its new direction. Whilst we have no doubt that the claims made are without merit, all legal matters will be dealt with in accordance with the proper channels, respecting both the confidentiality of the company and the parties involved.”
Both the current incarnations of Unilad and LadBible rely heavily on social media, in particular Facebook, to reach their audiences. Their business models are based around digital advertising.
Partridge was announced this week as the head of the Facebook team at marketing company Social Chain, which claims to be the UK’s “largest social influencer” company able to reach 200 million people on the web.
Responding to questions about criticism of the early incarnations of Unilad and Facebook when he ran them, Partiridge blamed naivety among those who wrote for him: “In the early days there was a lot of naivety about how to handle a Facebook platform. There were lots of irresponsible bits of content.”
The shift in emphasis from both the current LadBible and Unilad operations was the right one, he added: “With both cases it was a sensible thing to do to make both more commercial.”
