VANS SLIPS ON VANS WARPED TOUR

In the ongoing big dollar transactions surrounding Launch Media, Vans has agreed to spend $4.1 million to acquire 70% of the Vans Warped Tour in a two-step transaction with Launch and the original founders of the tour—Creative Artists Agency, Kevin Lyman and law firm Codikow and Carroll. As their television ad states: "Nothing says ‘punk rock fun in the summertime’ like the law firm of Codikow and Carroll."

You may recall that Lyman and C&C law factory's David Codikow joined Happy Walters' expanded team a few months back (see story, 2/11) as President/COO of Immortal Entertainment Group and President of Immortal Properties, respectively.

Launch, which can be found easily using the Yahoo! search engine, will run the tour this year and will have the right to sell exclusive sponsorship of the 2002 and 2003 tours. The all-day punk/PoMo music and skateboarding/BMX sports tour features 40-50 bands in 35-40 cities, with approximately 400,00 attendees annually. This year’s tour kicked off last week in Phoenix, with headliners 311, Rollins Band and Pennywise. Dude, it was awesome. You should have seen the sick stuff that Anthony Furlong was doing in the half-pipe. Me and my friend Seth got high with these chicks in the parking lot. It was awesome. The next day Seth was, like, way sunburned and his mom yelled at him 'cause he had to miss a day of school. What a bitch.

Anyway, The tour’s first run was in 1995. Vans became the title sponsor after buying in for 15% at a cost of $500k. Launch bought the tour from Vans and the founders for $7.5 million at closing in 2000—plus a $23.5 million earnout consisting of up to $1.5m annually for three years, up to $2m annually for two years and up to an additional $15m on January 1, 2005. The annual payments were based on ticket sales and the number of shows each year. Each of the three founders will have a 10% equity interest coupled with operating agreements to continue as active participants in the tour. Sweet!