Adidas ends Kanye West partnership over anti-Semitism

Sporting goods maker Adidas AG announced Tuesday that it is immediately ending its partnership with Kanye West, reacting to the American rapper and designer's offensive behavior.

The decision comes after Adidas (OTC:ADDYY) put the partnership, in which it produces the best-selling Yeezy brand sneakers, under review earlier this month following efforts to resolve the issue privately. "Adidas does not tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of hate speech," the German company said in a statement. "Ye's recent comments and actions are unacceptable, hateful and dangerous and violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness," it said, referring to the rapper by his legal name. Ending the partnership and production of Yeezy-branded products, as well as halting all payments to Ye and his companies, will have a "short-term negative impact" of up to 250 million euros ($248.90 million) on Adidas' net income this year, the company said. Ye has sparked controversy in recent months by publicly ending major corporate connections and for his outbursts against other celebrities on social media. His Twitter and Instagram accounts have been restricted and social media platforms have removed some of his online posts that users condemned as antisemitic. In now-deleted Instagram posts earlier this year, the Grammy-winning artist accused Adidas and U.S. clothing retailer Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) of failing to build contractually promised permanent stores for products in the Yeezy fashion line. Follow Global Economic Developments on Social Media! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Facebook account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Instagram account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Twitter account!