Monday, June 7, 2010

DONE Ventures Sues NBC Universal Over Failed Domain Name Sale

DONE! Ventures, the Internet marketing firm headed by BetterPPC's Ben Padnos, has sued NBC Universal over a failed agreement to buy domains Women.com and Women.net from NBC Universal via domain name firm Sedo. According to a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last Thursday, NBC Universal had agreed to sell Women.com and Women.net for one million dollars to DONE!, but then was overruled by NBC Universal President & CEO Jeff Zucker.

In the complaint, DONE! said it is seeking a temporary restraint and preliminary injunction to prevent the transfer of Women.com and Women.net to another party; that the court order NBC Univeral to carry through with its agreement, and sell the domains to DONE!; compensatory damages; and attorney's fees and costs, among other demands. As evidence, DONE! submitted an email chain which shows the acceptance of Padnos' offer by Sedo.

Padnos was the founder of Better PPC, a pay-per-click technology firm which helped small and medium sized businesses manage, optimize, and report on their PPC campaigns; Padnos sold BetterPPC in September of 2008 to Tsavo, the content startup headed by now-MySpace co-President Michael Jones. Padnos also has served at Yahoo! and University Netcasting, which became the CBS College Sports Network.

---