Thomas Haffa

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomas Haffa (1999)

Thomas Haffa (born April 18, 1952 in Kressbronn am Bodensee ) is a German media entrepreneur.

Haffa became known as CEO of EM.TV , one of the companies with a very spectacular rise and a very deep fall on the Neuer Markt stock exchange segment at the time . In 2010, Haffa ranked 229 in the list of the richest Germans with an estimated fortune of 200 to 300 million euros.

Professional background

After dropping out of school, Haffa, who grew up in Pfaffenhofen , did an apprenticeship as a wholesale and foreign trade clerk at a BMW dealer, after which he worked as a sales assistant at IBM from 1973 . At the beginning of the 1980s, Haffa began working for the Kirch Group and initially built up the Taurus Video video division . Over the next few years he worked his way up to managing director of merchandising and music publishers.

1989 Haffa made independently and, together with his brother Florian and the TV mogul Haim Saban , the EM Entertainment Munich, merchandising, film and television GmbH (EM.TV). Marketing objects from this time are z. B. Tabaluga , the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, and the rights to Expo 2000 .

With the IPO on October 30, 1997, EM.TV began a spectacular rise: The issue price of EUR 0.38 ( adjusted for split-offs ) was followed by one record high after another. a. also through the establishment of Junior TV at the end of 1998 together with the Kirch group, which had got into trouble. In the wake of the new economy , Haffa made EM.TV through further spectacular acquisitions such as a 50% share in the marketing rights of Formula 1 in 2000 (for around 3.3 billion euros) and the Jim Henson Company, the parent company of the Muppets Show , to a global media company. In addition, there was the worldwide rights to well-known cartoon characters such as Maya the Bee , Fred Feuerstein and Alfred J. Kwak . EM.TV's share certificates peaked in March 2000 at 110 euros.

In autumn 2000 Thomas Haffa and his brother Florian, who worked as CFO at EM.TV, had to revise the company's profit expectations downwards several times. The share price then collapsed and fell below 20 euros.

The brothers Thomas and Florian Haffa had sold a small part of their EM.TV shares before the announcement of the negative news and the sharp price decline. Thomas Haffa had violated the holding period when he sold shares at the high point in February 2000.

Thomas Haffa resigned as CEO of EM.TV on July 25, 2001. He was sentenced to a fine of 1.2 million euros on April 8, 2003 for incorrectly describing the company's circumstances, his brother Florian to 240,000 euros. The Federal Court of Justice upheld this judgment at the end of 2004 , and in 2006 the Federal Constitutional Court rejected a complaint by the Haffa brothers as unfounded. With that they were finally convicted of criminal law. Both brothers faced hundreds of legal cases in total. Despite a landmark ruling by the Federal Court of Justice in favor of aggrieved shareholders, many EM.TV shareholders were unsuccessful in their claims for damages because it was difficult to provide the required evidence of a direct connection between the incorrect company reports and the decision to buy shares.

In 2004, a group of investors led by Thomas Haffa was assigned the operational business of the Ulm commercial vehicle company Kögel AG , which had fallen into bankruptcy . In 2009, Kögel had to file for bankruptcy again.

Thomas Haffa is the managing director of the Munich-based airline Air Independence . In early 2010, he acquired a majority stake in teleshopping transmitter Channel 21 . In addition, he and his wife Gabriele bought the ship trading company Dahm International based in Mallorca in May 2010, which is one of the world's largest yacht dealers.

Haffa is married and has two children.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Haffa turns hobby into business . Süddeutsche.de. May 17, 2010. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
  2. ↑ Volker H. Peemöller, Stefan Hofmann: Accounting scandals: offenses and countermeasures , Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-503-09031-0 , p. 104.
  3. ↑ Constitutional judges reject the Haffa brothers . Handelsblatt. May 16, 2006. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
  4. ↑ The stock market blender . Süddeutsche.de. March 10, 2010. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  5. ↑ EM.TV investors are subject to court proceedings . Handelsblatt. November 3, 2005. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
  6. ↑ Cornelia Knust: Insolvency administrator Schneider is considered to be the "maintainer" . manager-magazin.de. November 28, 2011. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
  7. ↑ Hans-Peter Siebenhaar: The sorcerer's apprentice breaks his oath . Handelsblatt. June 1, 2010. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Haffa, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German media entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Kressbronn on Lake Constance