Thursday, September 22, 2011

DONE! Ventures Wins Women.com From NBC

The legal battle over the domain Women.com appears to have finally come to a close for Los Angeles-based DONE! Ventures, run by Ben Padnos. According to the firm, the Women.com domain was transferred to DONE! Ventures as part of a legal settlement with NBC Universal. Terms of the settlement were not released. Padnos--best known for starting BetterPPC, the provider of pay-per-click marketing software--had sued NBC Universal in June of 2010, after making an offer to buy Women.com for $1M, which was accepted by NBC Universal's agent, Sedo, but which failed to complete when then President and CEO of NBC Jeff Zucker apparently vetoed the deal. According to legal documents from the lawsuits, DONE had claimed NBC Universal backed out of the deal after it already had agreed to sell the domain. Padnos said in a statement that DONE! Ventures was "very pleased" that the firm could resolve the lawsuit, by completing the transaction. DONE! Ventures had also sued Sedo for $10M for its part in failing to complete the deal; it's unclear if that lawsuit is also resolved by the domain transfer.