"Mass Hysteria" is the New WOD at CrossFit

CrossFit's top management has been rallying the troops (affiliates and athletes) against the possible acquisition of a 50% stake in CrossFit Inc. by Anthos Capital, a growth equity firm. Management claims that the deal would take over headquarters and basically destroy CrossFit, turning it into a franchise concept.

First, let me give you a brief background on the situation: Greg Glassman, the guy who created the whole CrossFit concept, and his wife, Lauren Jenai Glassman, are getting divorced. As part of the divorce, Lauren has signed an agreement to sell her 50% stake to Anthos for $20 million, despite Greg's offers to buy her out for more or less the same amount. His latest offer was for $17.5 million, but while Anthos would pay one lump sum, Greg would pay over a five-year period.

Greg is obviously not pleased that Lauren would rather sell to Anthos than him. He has publicly said that Anthos' intention is to turn the affiliates into company franchisees and to have them sell supplements. It's obvious that the guy wants to stay in total control of his company. Can't blame him for that. After all, not a single cent of the proceeds of the sale to Anthos will go to him or CrossFit.

Anthos, meanwhile, insists that none of this is true. Managing director Bryan Kelly, who claims to have been doing CrossFit for two years, has said over and over that his firm does not take over companies. Instead, it just helps companies it invests in grow by helping them with financial planning and strategic direction. He is absolutely dumbfounded over the hostility CrossFit headquarters is directing his way.

I just think the whole situation is hilarious!

Since CrossFit management took to the interwebz in late June to denounce Lauren's selling out of CrossFit, all hell has broken loose on the internet, with conspiracy theories being plastered on discussion forums and memes spreading like wildfire.

Even well known CrossFit athletes have posted their anti-Anthos stance on You Tube and Twitter.
 
In response, Bryan and Lauren have also entered the internet fighting arena, publishing a video that explains why they want to get this deal done. 

Meanwhile, fitness buffs who aren't very fond of CrossFit for whatever reasons have been laughing their tushies off in their own forum, ridiculing die-hard CrossFitters' blind defense of Greg's stance.  They also ridicule CrossFit management's childish manner of dealing with this situation. Can't say they are wrong. Some of management's public posts are downright silly.

Facebook pages for and against the Anthos deal have also been created and both make for a great laugh.

Funny thing is, it's really up to the divorce court to decide if Lauren even has the right to sell the 50% she claims to own. It must be pointed out that while she may have been intricately involved in CrossFit, it was Greg who came up with the whole concept. So does she really have the right to sell half the company? Anyway, this divorce has apparently been in the works for about two years. I don't think the court is in a rush to decide what Lauren gets to sell.

CrossFit management does not really have a say about the sale either. Of course, they can roll out the scare campaign as they have been doing to encourage the affiliates to say they will drop the CrossFit brand if Anthos gets its stake, but if Lauren wants to sell her stake, she can sell it to whoever she wants and for as much (or little) as she wants.   

So up to now, this all looks like a "he said-she said-he said" situation. I am not taking sides, even if I love CrossFit. I could speculate all day on what Anthos could do to help or hurt the affiliate model. I could also speculate as to why Greg does not want a professional finance firm to help him grow his company further or make its operations at the headquarter level more efficient. But I will not.

I would prefer that affiliates continue to run their boxes as they see fit without intervention from CrossFit headquarters even if Anthos is involved. As they say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."