The deal that was supposed to be finished
Minute Media, the New York and Tel Aviv sports publisher behind titles like The Players' Tribune, announced in September 2025 that it would acquire VideoVerse, an India-founded AI video startup, for $250 million. By May 2026 the acquirer had walked away, saying it discovered significant discrepancies in VideoVerse's representations during the post-signing process.
What came next was not a quiet unwind. Founder Vinayak Shrivastav is now accused across multiple filings of using fraudulent merger documents that did not reflect the actual business terms, forging signatures on loan and share-repurchase agreements, and submitting fabricated bank balance screenshots as part of a $55 million loan application taken out shortly after the deal was announced.
Where the money actually went
Investment firm Lingotto says it transferred $53 million of that $55 million loan on the strength of documents it now believes were forged, and was never paid a $4 million installment that came due at the end of March 2026. When Lingotto called in the loan, it found a long line of other creditors also waiting to be paid by VideoVerse. A separate loan from Bluestone Capital, a 2023 investor in the company, had already gone into settlement months earlier over similarly overdue payments.
Shrivastav was removed as chief executive by the end of April 2026. Minute Media, Lingotto, Bluestone Capital and former chief operating officer Sabya Das are now all pursuing separate claims in Delaware Chancery Court -- Das alleging a further tangle of forged signatures tied to secondary share sales and a confidential high-interest loan.
What this means for the next cross-border deal
The lesson here is not about VideoVerse specifically, it is about deal mechanics. An acquisition announcement is a milestone, not a guarantee: representations and warranties, escrow arrangements and post-signing verification exist precisely because a founder's own paperwork -- bank statements, signed consents, cap-table records -- can be wrong or fabricated, and a fast-moving deal under competitive pressure is exactly when that verification gets compressed.
For any European or UK acquirer doing cross-border M&A with a founder-led startup, especially one still controlled by its founder through the transition period, the practical takeaway is to independently verify bank balances and collateral directly with the institution before wiring large sums, to insist on escrow or staged consideration tied to verified milestones rather than trusting signed paperwork alone, and to price representation-and-warranty insurance into the deal from day one rather than treating it as an optional extra late in negotiations.
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