Vanessa Bryant has just won the hearts of not only fans across the globe but also the heart of her late husband. Vanessa has won the lawsuit against Molly Carter, the president of Kobe Bryant’s conglomerate, Kobe Inc. Vanessa and her team of lawyers singlehandedly overtook one of the most significant investments Bryant ever made.
In 2013, Kobe Bryant invested $6 million in the sports drink BodyArmor for a 10% stake in the company. Beverage industry giant Coca-Cola acquires the BodyArmor for a whopping $5.6 billion in 2021, but purchased 15% of the company three years earlier. This paid Kobe about $400 million for his shares in the company.
The controversy comes into play when Molly Carter claims that she and Kobe verbally agreed that she would take 2% of his shares, six months before Bryant’s untimely demise in a helicopter crash.
Molly Carter is the Chief Marketing Officer at KOBE Inc.
Molly Carter is formerly known as a multi-award-winning brand architect that has created new campaigns, content, and collaborations for Fortune 100 corporations, athlete brands, and creative development organizations.
As per her LinkedIn profile, she graduated from DePaul University in Chicago, where she worked in the sports information division. Somewhere down the line, Carter became the President of Kobe Inc. the umbrella organization founded by Kobe Bryant that controls and manages the rest of his enterprises and subsidiaries.
Carter was in charge of Granity Studios, Kobe Inc.’s self-owned multi-media content creation company, as well as the overall strategic direction, global brand management, and licensing of Kobe Bryant’s overall image and brand.
She had branched out into overseeing and undertaking many ventures in the name of Kobe Inc., notably being an executive producer for the movie ‘Dear Basketball’ which went on to win the 2018 Academy Award and the 2018 Annie Award for Best Animated Short.
Recently, Carter held several leadership positions for PepsiCo’s Gatorade brand, where she successfully launched global campaigns under the names of ‘Made in New York: Derek Jeter’s Retirement’ and ‘Sweat it to Get It’. Both of these were received immensely positively by the community and earned Gatorade a significant boost in sales.