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Beleaguered electrical truckage troupe Nikola has sold the Badger galvanic pickup truck hand truck assets it was once think to work up with General Motors . The purchaser ? A new company promise Embr Motors make by vehicle builder and television personality Dave “ Heavy D ” Sparks , one half of the former TV span the Diesel Brothers .
Embr now own the intellectual attribute associated with the Badger cartridge motortruck , as well as the plus relate to Nikola ’s forsake off - route and personal water craft vehicle . It also have the only two prototype rendering of the Badger ever built .
News of the deal to sell the Badger program comes at an left prison term . Just a few weeks ago Nikola ’s disgraced laminitis , Trevor Milton , announced plans to endeavor to install Sparks and a slate of other directorson the companionship ’s board . That effort failed . Milton wassentencedto four years in prison in December after being convicted of security system fraud and telegram fraud in 2022 , in part because he misdirect investors about the progress of the Badger .
From its founding in 2014 , Nikola was always primarily about name hydrogen and galvanising big turnout . But it revealed the Badger pickup arm in February 2020 , just a few months before it give way public in a merger with a special role acquisition troupe . In September 2020 , General Motorsannouncedit was invest $ 2 billion in the startup and that it would facilitate bring the Badger to market . Just days later short - selling research business firm Hindenburg Research published a damnatory report alleging Nikola had made a bit of false claims . That report corkscrew into a government investigation , and finally , led to Nikola paying a settlement to the SEC and Milton ’s departure and eventual article of faith . Nikola refunded the client deposits for the Badger and put the program on ice .
Sparks first revealed the purchase earlier this week in a YouTubevideotitled “ The Nikola Badger is REAL and I Own Them . ” He enunciate the dealing involve “ tens of millions ” of buck . ” He also explained how he was given stock in Nikola as part of an arrangement to advertize the Badger ( before the programme lead under ) , and that he ’s a longtime friend of Milton ’s .
Nikola confirmed some details of the purchase Thursday morning , when it let on its financial results for 2023 .
Britton Worthen , the party ’s main legal officeholder , said on a conference call that Sparks and his partner , Cole Cannon , “ expressed a desire ” to bring the Badger to market and bring “ several EV - related spouse ” to merging as the two sides hammered out a deal . Nikola is essentially lend money to Embr to purchase the asset and in interchange for a 30 % post in the ship’s company , which could “ hold some economic value for its shareholders ” if anything ever come of the Badger or the other vehicles .
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Worthen said Nikola is clawing back 500,000 of those shares Milton give Sparks as part of the deal . Sparks and Cannon also check that Milton would not be involve “ directly or indirectly in any way ” with these projects .
“ Over the three and a half year since Mr. Milton leave the company , we at Nikola have worked to abide above the affray , not commentary on his legal legal proceeding , and stay focused on the study at helping hand to wreak zero - emission socio-economic class eight motortruck to food market , ” Worthen say on the call . “ The sarcasm that Mr. Milton is now taste to take control of Nikola , after all that has happen in the preceding three and a half years is not lost on us at the company . We will keep on to tug back against any sweat he take in to assay to take control of Nikola and we trust our music director and management are far and away better for our stockholders than a slating of directors who miss relevant experience to run a clean energy clean technical school company . ”
TechCrunch reached out to Cannon for comment on his and Sparks ’ amour in the projection but did not instantly hear back .
