Rockstar Founder Russ Savage Goes 'Full Savage' on Celsius with New Stake (And Not-So-Kind Words)

“Daddy’s home.” - Russ Weiner Savage, probably… 

A dude who legally changes his name from Weiner to Savage (which, fair) is not sneaking up on anybody, and this week he stopped pretending to. The Rockstar Landlord (read: Russ Savage of Rockstar Energy) backed the Brinks truck up to Celsius Holdings, telling reports he now owns 12 million shares, roughly 4.7% of the company and about $300 million worth. His demands being the CEO, the COO, the brand manager, and the marketing manager all get walked out with their stuff in a box. 

Friendly reminder on why this is such a BFD, Savage mortgaged his Sausalito condo to launch Rockstar in 2001, sold it to PepsiCo in 2020 for north of $4 billion, and has spent retirement buying trophy mansions, gutting them, and renting them to Beyoncé, Drake, and Kendall Jenner. The man has been six to midnight about a comeback for a while now. And as of this week, Celsius is the place to bring that dream home. 

Which makes sense considering the property, in fairness, is distressed AF. Celsius got its d*ck kicked in Thursday: down 18% in a day after earnings of 36 cents whiffed against the 43 cents Wall Street wanted, revenue of $817.9 million came up $50 million light, and net income got sawed in half from a year ago. Scarier still, sales of the flagship Celsius brand actually SHRANK for the first time. Then news surfaced of Savage’s stake Friday and the stock ripped 12%. 

Nothing personal, John

John being Chairman and CEO John Fieldly, who blamed the miss on a "we pulled a bunch of sh*t off the shelves and sales left with it" "product rationalization program and deliberate pause in innovation." He's also digesting two acquisitions at once with Alani Nu, bought last year for $1.8 billion, and Rockstar itself, which Celsius took over from Pepsi in the US and Canada last year. Meaning, Savage's old baby now lives inside the company he's raiding, and its retail sales are down 13%. Translation: Dad's home, and he's seen the report card.

Naturally, Celsius responded that it "welcomes ideas that are potentially value-creating from all Celsius Holdings shareholders" (read: pound sand, politely) and noted its board and management "have engaged with Russ Savage many times over the past several years." But underneath, we all suspect Celsius HQ is punching air. 

To be fair to Fieldly, he's the one who dragged Celsius back from near-bankruptcy to selling one of every five energy drinks in America, and Savage is no drive-by tourist. Russ has owned the stock on and off for two years and started building this stake in March, down in the low $30s, convinced it was a bargain about to bounce. It fell anyway. "I didn't think they would wreck it this badly," he told reporters (absolutely savage). 

Now, can Russ turn it around? Or is that his big swingin’ ego talking. Probably both, but only time will tell. Regardless, Russ is getting his full landlord special: buy it distressed, gut it to the studs, slap his name on the deed, and jack the rent. Place your bets accordingly, friends. Until next time…

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.