A family dispute translates into business losses
Forbes noted that the family dispute translates into business losses. He reduced the valuation of Cyfrowy Polsat by PLN 2 billion, analysts began to include him in the risks. “How is it possible that your conflict with your children – which had been going on for many months – suddenly grew so large, escalated and became public, instead of ending between you? Where did you go wrong?” – Solorz was asked.
“It is completely unnecessary to make scandals around me, it is not good for business. Of course it had to and could have been stopped. The so-called human wisdom was missing here. My children went to the media with our matters, and this harmed the company, so really to all of us. I did everything to resolve this dispute between us,” said the owner of Cyfrowy Polsat.
The idea of succession
Solorz was asked about the original idea for succession. Forbes pointed out that before the scandal broke out, Tobias and Piotr were on the supervisory board of Polkomtel, Piotr was and still is the president of Telewizja Polsat. Aleksandra was not on the company’s boards. “In 2022, I made an entry in my foundation registered in Liechtenstein that in cases of emergency, children could take control of the foundation,” Solorz explained.
“So when will your health deteriorate dramatically?” – Forbes asked. “Among other things. I decided that this would be the best, most honest way. That as long as I was able to manage the business, I would manage it and introduce the children gradually so that they could gain experience under my supervision. That is, they could join councils and management boards. I always wanted everything hand it over to the children for management and then ownership. This is how it is normally done in business. However, it turned out that they wanted to receive it all much earlier than I planned to hand it over to them,” said Solorz. He added that the problem of his health was artificially created for the purposes of court cases under the pretext of false concern.
“Like every parent, I wanted to provide my children with the best.”
Forbes asked why the management of the foundation was not handed over to the children on December 15, 2023, the date mutually agreed. “This date was the initiative of my children, who turned out to be impatient. It was the first attempt to speed up what I had planned for later. They wanted to take over my rights in the foundation on December 15, 2023, and I initially gave in. We made such provisions for several months. earlier. But eventually I changed my mind (…). You know, you have to trust children, so I agreed. But then I saw that they are unready and ungrateful. You have to learn a lot to do business. – he said.
“Like every parent, I wanted to provide my children with everything that’s best. I gave them a good and prosperous life, they worked for me, they owe everything they have to me. And that’s how it should be, because it’s normal in every family. Well, but apparently they wanted to more and faster, contrary to my plans and at my expense. In August this year, they made a second attempt to accelerate the takeover of management,” he added.
Forbes reported that on August 2, Solorz signed a document in the presence of a notary and agreed to give the children control of the foundation. “If you had kept your previous decision and not agreed, things would have continued as before. Why did you trust the children again?” – he asked. “This time my children outright deceived me. The letter was complicated, with references to paragraphs of other legal documents that I do not have in mind,” said the owner of Cyfrowy Polsat. (PAP)
