As a species, we have evolved far beyond the mentality where women are property that can be bought and sold. Women.com, however, is a precious commodity that NBC Universal is apparently reluctant to let go of, even though they aren’t really using it. DONE! Ventures, on the other hand, claims that it passionately desires women.com, whose needs NBC is neglecting anyway.
According to TechCrunch, DONE! Ventures CEO Ben Padnos claims he and NBC had a deal to exchange hands of women.com and women.net for the fine price of a million bucks. Then in the eleventh hour, NBC President and CEO Jeff Zucker stepped in to cancel the exchange entirely. Now Padnos and Co. are suing NBC for breach of contract.
As for the timeframe of this whole chaos, DONE! claims that they made the million dollar offer on May 21, and that is was subsequently accepted on May 24, then on May 27 they got word that Zucker himself had vetoed the sale and taken the domains off the market entirely.
From the TechCrunch report:
“DONE! is now asking the Court to enforce ‘specific performance’, requiring NBC Universal to transfer ownership of the domains. The company says it is currently developing an online content network for which the domain name Women.com is critical, as the target audience will consist of ‘modern, powerful, intelligent women’.”
Also from TechCrunch, you can see the full documentation of the suit below:
While we have yet to hear NBC’s side of the story, the principle stands that you can’t just make a contract and break it. Even if you do run NBC.
(Via TechCrunch)
