How a family feud over succession sees Polish billionaire Zygmunt Solorz fired from his own firm

The TiVi Foundation, established by the Solorz family and Cyfrowy Polsat’s main shareholder, announced Tuesday it had exercised its special rights to remove Solorz as chairman of the firm’s supervisory board. Chief executive officer Miroslaw Blaszczyk was also dismissed, Polish news network TVP World reported.

TiVi is one of two entities, the other being Solkomtel Foundation, through which Solorz controls his majority stake in the media group and other affiliated businesses.

The dismissals marked the latest twist in a bitter succession battle involving the 68-year-old billionaire, his offspring—two sons and a daughter, and his fourth wife, Justyna Kulka, an employee he married in March 2024.

Polish media mogul Zygmunt Solorz-Zak plays with a ball after the semifinal match between Poland and Germany at the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship Poland 2014 at Spodek Arena in Katowice September 20, 2014. Photo by Reuters

Tensions first surfaced around July or August last year, when Solorz and his children, Tobias Solorz, Piotr Żak and Aleksandra Żak, began discussing succession plans, with the latter voicing their concerns about Kulka.

Solorz agreed to hand them control of the two foundations that anchor his business empire, only to reverse course just days later.

In late September, the children issued letters to managers at several firms owned by his father, warning them not to participate in any takeover efforts. They also said they were having trouble contacting their father and were in conflict with Kulka.

The day the letters were made public, Solorz made a statement saying that involving his children on the boards of his businesses "does not contribute to greater stability in the companies, nor to building a better future for them," as reported by Polskie Radio.

Then, in early October, the tycoon, who rarely made public appearances, joined a shareholder meeting for his utility company ZE PAK via videolink and voted to remove his sons from its supervisory board. His appearance at the event, where he appeared to struggle with his speech and read from a prepared statement, fueled concerns over his health, though his aides have consistently denied such speculation.

The dispute escalated again in May, after Solorz attempted to remove his sons from his companies, a Liechtenstein court rejected his lawsuit to block the children’s succession at the TiVi Foundation. His lawyer said the ruling is being appealed.

From selling candles to media empire

The power struggle is a dramatic turn for Solorz, a major figure in Poland’s telecommunications, media, real estate, and energy industries, whose rise is a well-known rags-to-riches story.

Born in Radom, some 100 kilometers south of Warsaw, he got his start selling a variety of goods, including candles at a cemetery, before gradually moving into ventures like electric heaters and car imports. His breakthrough came in 1994 when he made a long-shot bid for a private TV broadcasting license and won. Since then, Polsat has gone on to become a media powerhouse, as per the Financial Times.

Today, Solorz’s business empire spans mobile services, energy and financial products. With a fortune of US$3 billion, he ranks as Poland’s fourth-richest individual, according to Forbes.

In a statement released through Cyfrowy Polsat, TiVi said it "recognizes and appreciates the indisputable contributions" of Solorz and its former CEO, but the Tuesday changes were to tighten oversight of key holdings.

"The Foundation’s cornerstone obligation is to protect its assets, and the above changes were indispensable to properly discharge said obligation," the foundation said, adding that it will continue to observe the situation and take more measures as needed.

Jaroslaw Kolkowski, a lawyer representing the foundation, separately said the dismissals were intended to "limit the risk of transferring assets out of the family foundation."

Solorz’s lawyer has said that the billionaire intends to appeal the "unlawful" decision, describing the dismissal as "merely a temporary situation."