Eightco announces Paul Vassilakos as Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Certain Balance Sheet Improvements

Easton, PA, March 18, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eightco Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: OCTO) (the “Company” or “Eightco”) today announced that Paul N. Vassilakos has been named as the Company’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Kevin O’Donnell, who served as the Company’s Executive Chairman since October 2021 and Interim Chief Executive Officer for the last month, will remain a member of the Board of Directors (the “Board”). Brian McFadden, a member of the Company’s Board who had previously served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, will be resigning from the Board.

Mr. Vassilakos co-founded Forever 8 Fund, LLC (“Forever 8”), the Company’s largest subsidiary, in July 2020 and has served as a Managing Director of Forever 8 since such time. Mr. Vassilakos has held Board, CEO and CFO positions on various publicly listed companies throughout his career. Additionally, Mr. Vassilakos founded Petrina Advisors, Inc., a privately held advisory firm, where he provided investment banking advisory services for public and privately held companies, helping them grow and list on national exchanges.

“We feel Paul is the right leader for Eightco,” said Kevin O’Donnell, Eightco’s former Executive Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer. “Paul’s deep knowledge of the Forever 8 business make him ideally suited to lead Eightco’s growth going forward. We believe his significant public markets experience will help focus Eightco during its road to profitability.”

“I am very excited to be joining the Eightco leadership team,” said Mr. Vassilakos. “I believe Forever 8’s business model and talented management team uniquely position it to capitalize on the current e-commerce environment. As the e-commerce industry evolves through consolidation and technology improvements, I believe Forever 8, alongside Eightco’s efforts to reduce ongoing costs at the parent company level, is in a position to provide a cost effective and timely inventory capital solution to e-commerce sellers to help maximize their profits.”

The former owners of Forever 8, including Mr. Vassilakos, have also agreed to amend the aggregate $27.5 million principal amount of notes that were received as consideration in the October 2022 sale of Forever 8 to the Company. These amendments include a cancellation of an aggregate of approximately $3.0 million in accrued interest, as well as the conversion of an aggregate of approximately $1.1 million of accrued interest into 1.4 million shares of common stock of Eightco. The former Forever 8 owners also agreed to defer interest and any payments due on the notes until October 30, 2024.