Alper Uzmezler v. Ekim Stevens

Texas Court of Appeals, 3rd District (Austin)·Decided August 28, 2026·No. 03-24-00513-CV·Published

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-24-00513-CV

Alper Uzmezler, Appellant v.

Ekim Stevens, Appellee

FROM THE 126TH DISTRICT COURT OF TRAVIS COUNTY NO. D-1-FM-21-005611, THE HONORABLE JESSICA MANGRUM, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

In this divorce case, appellant Alper Uzmezler challenges the trial court’s property division, asserting that the trial court erred in its valuation of a community-property business. For the reasons explained below, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

Appellee Ekim Stevens and Uzmezler were married on June 28, 2010. The parties had one child during the marriage.

In September 2021, Stevens petitioned for divorce on the grounds of insupportability, cruelty, and adultery; in her live petition, she amended the grounds to be insupportability because of discord or conflict of personalities and adultery. Uzmezler counterpetitioned for divorce on the grounds of insupportability, cruelty, and discord or conflict of personalities. Stevens sought a disproportionate share of the parties’ community estate for the

following reasons: (a) Uzmezler’s fault in the marriage’s breakup; (b) Stevens’s being “the spouse to whom conservatorship of the child is granted”; (c) needs and expenses of the child of the marriage; (d) community indebtedness and liabilities; (e) nature of the property involved in the division; (f) wasting of community assets; and (g) attorneys’ fees to be paid.

They resolved all issues of conservatorship and possession and access in a partial mediated settlement agreement before the trial and reserved the issue of Uzmezler’s child-support obligation for trial. During the two-day bench trial, the parties submitted the issues of child support, characterization and valuation of property, and division of the community estate to the trial court.

The court heard testimony from the parties, each of their business-valuation experts, and their companies’ CPA. The parties owned and operated two businesses during the marriage: BAS Services and Graphics, LLC (BASSG) and Anka Labs, Inc. Both businesses are in the smart-building industry. The parties and the experts testified that the two companies were treated as one company in the way that they were run.

BASSG was formed in 2008 before the parties married. Uzmezler and Stevens were the only two members of the company when it was formed. Uzmezler has a 75% membership interest, and Stevens has a 25% membership interest. BASSG is a company that provides building-automation systems, services, energy-management products, hardware, and 3D animated graphics for the building industry. Both parties worked for BASSG. Uzmezler is a software developer, and he holds various certifications related to building-automation systems. Stevens did accounting, modeled 3D floor plans, managed customer communications, and performed project management, sales, and administrative work.

Anka Labs was formed in January 2017. Uzmezler is the only shareholder of that corporation. Anka Labs sells AnkaStack software to building managers who want to monitor and control equipment made by different manufacturers from a single dashboard. AnkaStack relies on Project Sandstar technology, an open-source software platform that was created by Uzmezler. The Project Sandstar technology can be housed in small, inexpensive, open-source hardware boxes attached to the different manufacturers’ physical building equipment. The Project Sandstar technology can effectively translate the proprietary machine languages of the different manufacturers into a universal language that the AnkaStack website understands. To protect Anka Labs’ proprietary technology from larger firms, Uzmezler applied for and obtained a patent for Edge Analytics Control Devices and Methods. The goal is for hardware manufacturers to change how they build their hardware and pre-install Sandstar on their equipment so that the equipment could be run on a single website dashboard without needing a separate hardware box attached.

Anka Labs also has a library of 9,600 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that were valued at .1 ETH (which was equivalent to $1,900 at the time of trial). 1 Uzmezler started the creation of the NFT library to crowdfund the company. He testified that he wanted to get some outside investment into Anka Labs so that he could pay BASSG for the investment it made in R&D for the Anka Labs products.

1 ETH is the native digital currency used to pay for transactions and services on Ethereum, which is a global, decentralized computer network based on blockchain technology. Instead of having a central bank, Ethereum uses a shared secure ledger to record transactions and run automated digital agreements called smart contracts. NFTs are unique digital assets created and traded on this network using these contracts. Thus, the value of Anka Labs’ NFT library is tied to the market price of Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, ETH.

Both parties hired experts to value the businesses, and both experts testified at trial about the businesses’ value. In addition, the companies’ CPA, Richard Schwartz, testified at trial. Schwartz testified that he had been both companies’ CPA since their formation and that he submits their business taxes each year, as well as the parties’ personal taxes. He testified that he does not have expertise in valuing a business. He testified in general terms to the companies’ past profit and loss, and he stated that “for tax purposes, everything was paid out of one company.” He further explained that “it was BAS[SG] who basically incurred all the expenses for the software development. And if the software failed, did not work, it would be BAS[SG] that absorbed all the losses on it.”

Michael Benaglio, Stevens’s valuation expert, explained that there are three approaches that may be used to evaluate a business: the asset approach, the market approach, and the income approach. Benaglio considered all three approaches but primarily used the asset and income approaches. He further explained that within each approach, there are multiple methodologies that may be used. Because the biggest asset of these companies is the intangible asset of intellectual property (IP), Benaglio focused on it in his analysis. In his report, Benaglio explains that “[i]ntellectual capital is recognized as the most important asset of many of the world’s largest and most powerful companies; it is the foundation for market dominance and continuing profitability of leading corporations”; “[i]t is often the key objective in mergers and acquisitions”; and “[o]ne of the key factors affecting a company’s success or failure is the degree to which it exploits intellectual capital and values risk.” Benaglio testified that Anka Labs was the software-developing part of the two businesses. BASSG brought in consulting income of a little over $1 million per year, and it would be the arm selling and receiving the funds for the

software being developed, even though Anka Labs owned the software. Benaglio valued BASSG at $1,050,000, and he valued Anka Labs at $1.5 million.

Erin Buck, Uzmezler’s valuation expert, testified that she used the income approach, applying a discounted cash-flow method, and the market approach, applying a transaction method. She testified that she did not feel the asset approach “presented the highest and best value for the companies.” Under the income approach, her total valuation of the businesses as a whole was approximately $307,000. Under the market approach, her total valuation of the businesses as a whole was approximately $345,000. Her average of the two was $326,000.

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Alper Uzmezler v. Ekim Stevens, (Tex. Ct. App. 2026).

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