The media landscape is always changing, and that’s clear once again as Petrolicious has been acquired by a newly formed company called Propulsion Media.

The new firm is being led by Pat Devereux who has served as the US editor-at-large for BBC Top Gear. The company is also being backed by Adrian Roche at Bennelong Capital.

There’s no word on the transaction price, but Propulsion Media promised to “grow and invest in all areas of the Petrolicious business and continue to extend the reach of the brand into new territories and genres.” They also made it abundantly clear that “Petrolicious founder, Afshin Behnia, and his wife, Kika Vigo-Behnia, have left the company.”

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While it’s not uncommon for businesses to be sold, they typically don’t implode as dramatically as Petrolicious. Afshin Behnia had been vocal on social media and these posts would come back to haunt him after he turned his attention to the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests following the death of George Floyd.

In one post, he asked “Who’s going to be brave enough to call the BLM movement for what it is? Domestic terrorism.” Another asked “Do unborn black lives matter?”

These Facebook posts by Behnia have since been deleted, but not before Jalopnik’s Jason Torchinsky took some screenshots

The posts started getting attention and were picked up by several sites including Jalopnik. This caused a lot of backlash for Petrolicious and Behnia was forced to address the issue.

In a post on the Petrolicious Instagram account, Behnia acknowledged his Facebook posts “upset and angered … many members of the automotive community.” He went on to claim he’s not racist and was outraged by Floyd’s “cold-blooded murder.”

Behnia went on to say “I believe our fight for justice is derailed when we loot, burn and destroy innocent lives.” He added, “My post was written out of frustration at seeing our pursuit of justice turn into senseless violence led by the actions of a few within their ranks, which I believe is causing to divide us.”

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The statement did little to quell the backlash and, on July 10th, Behnia announced “I have decided that it is in the best interest of Petrolicious, our fans, and its future clients, for me to step down and let new owners carry Petrolicious forward.” He followed up a few days ago with a statement saying “I believe the new management truly understands and appreciates what Petrolicious stands for, and I’m very much encouraged by their vision for where they want to take the brand.”

However, it remains unclear if fans will stick with Petrolicious and its new owners. Data from SocialBlade shows views of Petrolicious’ YouTube channel plummeted last month and the number of new subscribers has been falling since May. Of course, part of that can likely be caulked up to the lack of content as their last upload was from June 23rd.