Carlos Watson’s Ozy Media Lawsuit Accuses Ben Smith, BuzzFeed and Semafor of Stealing Trade Secrets

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Lawyers for Ozy Media, the defunct media and entertainment company founded by Carlos Watson, allege in a new lawsuit that Ben Smith, BuzzFeed and Semafor (the media startup co-founded by Smith in 2022) misappropriated Ozy’s trade secrets “for their own benefit.” The suit additionally alleges that BuzzFeed breached a nondisclosure agreement it entered into with Ozy in 2019 as part of its efforts to buy the company.

Lawyers representing Ozy Media allege that Smith, former BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief and New York Times media columnist who is currently editor-in-chief of Semafor, wrote “a series of hit pieces” about Ozy Media but that he did not disclose “his central role in BuzzFeed’s efforts to buy Ozy two years earlier” while he was at BuzzFeed.

Reps for BuzzFeed and Semafor declined to comment. Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, seeks unspecified monetary damages and that Smith and Semafor be “restrained and enjoined from misappropriating, disclosing or using Ozy’s Confidential Information and trade secrets.” The lawsuit alleges that Smith “was given unfettered access to Ozy’s trade secrets during the BuzzFeed acquisition process” in September 2019, when BuzzFeed was exploring a deal to buy Ozy Media that it ultimately abandoned.