Seltaeb was a company set up in 1963 by Nicky Byrne (né Douglas Anthony Nicholas Byrne) to exclusively look after merchandising interests on behalf of Brian Epstein, who managed NEMS Enterprises and the Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
Directly prior to the Beatles' first American visit, Brian Epstein wanted someone to manage the escalating volume of merchandising requests that NEMS found itself unable to cope with, and asked his lawyer, David Jacobs, to oversee this task. Jacobs knew Nicky Byrne and asked him if he would be interested in taking over the merchandising subdivision from NEMS altogether, paying NEMS a commission. Byrne accepted the offer subject to a 90% rate, leaving only 10% for the Beatles and NEMS combined. Completely unaware of the potential market that existed, particularly in the United States, Epstein agreed to the deal, and subsequently lost the Beatles an estimated $100,000,000 in possible income.
In December 1963, Byrne took over the control of Stramsact in the UK, and then set up Seltaeb (Beatles spelt backwards) in the United States. Epstein was able to renegotiate a more favourable commission of 49% in August 1964, but then became embroiled in a three-year court battle with Byrne regarding payment of monies due, during which time potential sponsors lost interest. In August 1967 Epstein died, from what was ruled an accidental overdose of a prescribed drug. Jacobs was found hanged in his garage on 15 December 1968. Byrne later retired to the Bahamas.
Merchandising
Before the Beatles achieved nationwide success in Britain, Epstein had permitted a small company (run by his cousins, and which initially catered only to fan club members) to produce Beatles' sweaters for 30 shillings and badges for sixpence, eventually selling 15,000 sweaters and 50,000 badges as the Beatles' popularity grew. When Beatlemania stormed the UK in 1963, Epstein was besieged by novelty goods companies wanting to use the Beatles' name and images on plastic guitars, drums, disc racks, badges, belts and a huge variety of assorted merchandise. Epstein was adamant that the Beatles would not directly endorse any product, but through NEMS Enterprises he would grant discretionary licences to companies who were able to produce a quality product at a fair price, although many companies were already selling products without a licence.
When NEMS was swamped with offers of endorsements from the United States following the success of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", Epstein, who was usually meticulous in matters involving the Beatles, decided to delegate this responsibility as he felt it was distracting him from his main task of managing his expanding roster of artists. He then asked Jacobs, his London-based celebrity lawyer who lived in Hove (Jacobs's other clients included Marlene Dietrich, Diana Dors, Judy Garland, Liberace and Laurence Harvey) to appoint someone specifically to take over the assignment and gave Jacobs power of attorney in the matter. Jacobs at first handed the daily management of this to his chief clerk, Edward Marke, but it transpired that Marke knew almost nothing about the merchandising business, and so Jacobs was forced to look elsewhere.
Jacobs knew of a Chelsea socialite, a 37-year-old divorcé called Nicky Byrne, and when encountering him at a friend's cocktail party offered him the project, saying that "Brian [Epstein] has made a terrible mess out of this [merchandising]." Byrne, who has said he had been "sitting around doing nothing for half of 1963" was an ex-Horse Guard trooper and amateur racing driver. He had also previously been involved in music publishing, clothes design, theatre production, managing the Condor club in London, and was also known as being a part of a group of people who called themselves "The King's Road Rats". He had not had any previous experience of merchandising or managing a large business.