Drinks giant Diageo ends 'broken' Diddy partnership

British drinks elephantine Diageo has ended its concern with Sean Combs, known arsenic Diddy, aft the rapper sued the firm, accusing it of neglecting his tequila marque owed to his race.

The institution announced the determination portion responding formally to the lawsuit, which it asked to beryllium dismissed.

It said Mr Combs' complaints were mendacious and defamatory and made successful an effort to extract wealth from the company.

An lawyer for Mr Combs said Diageo was trying to distract from his claims.

Diageo, proprietor of brands specified arsenic Johnnie Walker, Guinness and Tanqueray, said the narration had been connected the rocks since Mr Combs had failed to conscionable his promises to money DeLeon Tequila, which they bought unneurotic successful 2013.

Diageo said it had invested much than $100m (£78m) successful DeLeon Tequila and "tried for years to salvage the breached narration with Mr Combs".

"Despite having made astir a cardinal dollars implicit the people of our 15-year relationship, Mr Combs contributed a full of $1,000 and refused to grant his commitments," the institution said.

"Mr. Combs' bad-faith actions person intelligibly breached his contracts and near america nary prime but to determination to disregard his baseless ailment and extremity our concern relationship".

Mr Combs roseate to fame arsenic a euphony enforcement and rapper successful the 1990s earlier branching retired into acting and different concern ventures.

He had worked with Diageo since 2007, erstwhile the institution asked him to assistance beforehand the company's Ciroc vodka.

The ailment from his institution - Combs Wines & Spirits - against Diageo accused the steadfast of falling abbreviated of its commitments for distribution, concern and marque positioning for DeLeon. It accused the steadfast of "racial typecasting" and limiting DeLeon's organisation to "urban" neighbourhoods.

An lawyer for Mr Combs said helium had "repeatedly raised concerns arsenic elder executives uttered racially insensitive comments and made biased decisions based connected that constituent of view".

"Diageo attempting to extremity its deals with Mr Combs is similar firing a whistleblower who calls retired racism. It's a cynical and transparent effort to distract from aggregate allegations of discrimination," said his lawyer John C Hueston.

He added: "This suit and Mr. Combs are not going away."

In its response, Diageo blamed the problems connected Mr Combs' "failure to money the JV [joint venture]", which it said had "created a contentious relationship, severely damaged the DeLeon marque astatine a captious juncture, and stalled its committedness and imaginable for maturation for respective years".

Diageo said it had agreed to forgive Mr Combs' debts during negotiations successful 2020. Following a reset, income volumes had doubled, it said.

"Unfortunately, Combs has proven himself erstwhile and for each to beryllium an unreliable and untrustworthy concern partner," the institution said successful its response.

"Despite DeLeon's caller maturation and progress, and successful disregard of aggregate provisions of the DeLeon Agreement, earlier this twelvemonth Combs again began to endanger Diageo with contrived racism allegations to unit Diageo to accede to respective outrageous and extra-contractual demands, including for expected billions of dollars of damages."

Diageo said it remained committed to the occurrence of the DeLeon and Ciroc brands but planned to sever ties.

"We person exhausted each tenable remedy and spot nary different way forward," it said.