David Beckham Is Suing Former BFF Mark Wahlberg Over Horrendous F45 Equity Endorsement Deal

David Beckham's net worth is $450 million. Mark Wahlberg's net worth is $400 million.

You would think two guys who sport $850 million in combined personal wealth would find a way to privately settle a "measly" little $10.5 million failed endorsement partnership. Unfortunately, that's not what happened.

Over the weekend it was revealed that Beckham is suing Wahlberg over an endorsement in the latter's F45 fitness chain. Here's what you need to know:

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Former Neighbors

David and wife, Victoria Beckham, first moved to Los Angeles in 2007 after he signed a 5-year, $250 million contract with the LA Galaxy. To make themselves home, they bought… a home. Specifically, a $19 million, 13,000-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills. They lived in this house (when they were in LA) for the next 11 years until October 2018, when they sold it for $33 million.

During that decade, David and Victoria befriend Mark Wahlberg, whose massive mansion in the gated community of Beverly Park, was just a few minutes away.

F45

In 2019, Mark teamed up with a venture capital company called FOD Capital to invest in a fitness chain called F45.

Founded in Australia by Rob Deutsch, F45 went from 14 locations in 2014 to more than 3,000 by 2021. That growth was driven by franchising expert Adam Gilchrist, who appears to have bought out founder Rob Deutsch at some point.

On July 15, 2021, F45 went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol: FXLV. F45's stock price ended its first day of trading with at $16.20. That officially gave the company a market cap of $1.6 billion.

Unfortunately, that period right after going public would prove to be the high point for F45. A year later, the stock was trading at $4 a share. Two years after going public, in July 2023, the stock had sunk all the way down to $0.10 per share. At that level, F45's market cap was just $10 million. The company was actually de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange in August 2023.

Directly and through a partnership, Mark Wahlberg owned a little more than 8 million shares of FXLV when it went public. When the company was trading at $16 a share, his stake was worth $130 million. Right before the company was de-listed, his stake was worth about $800,000.

Beckham Endorsement

In 2020, Mark convinced his friend David Beckham to become a global ambassador for F45. David posted some photos of himself doing an F45 workout to social media, stating:

"I've been a fan of the F45 franchise and training model since being introduced by my friend, Mark Wahlberg."

Beckham was reportedly promised an equity stake in the company that should have been worth tens of millions of dollars. According to his lawsuit, David claims he was supposed to receive the shares in 2022, at which point the shares would have been worth $10.5 million based on a price per share of $12. Unfortunately, Beckham claims he was not issued the shares until 2023, by which point the shares had sunk to $3 and not long before they sunk into the pennies-per-share territory. David has since deleted the social media posts.

In response, Mark and his co-defendants called the lawsuit"fraudulent."

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