Stan Lee Media
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| Public Delisted | |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Founded | October 1998 |
| Founder | Stan Lee, Peter F. Paul |
| Defunct | December 19, 2000 |
| Headquarters | Beverly Hills, California, US |
| Services | internet and motion picture animation studio |
| Subsidiaries | Stan Lee Media Studios |
| Website | www |
Stan Lee Media (SLM) was an Internet-based creation, production and marketing company that was founded in 1998, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2000, and ultimately dismissed from bankruptcy in November 2006. In its early years, the company created Stan Lee branded super hero franchises for applications in all media. Its 165-man animation production studio was based in Los Angeles from 1998–2001. It won the 2000 Web Award for the best Entertainment Portal on the World Wide Web, but the company failed in the same year and the corporate shell has been involved in numerous lawsuits in the years since. The company has been characterized as "a sleazy Internet start-up that could function as the poster child for the excesses of the turn-of-the-century era."Stan Lee himself has long since cut ties with the company.
The company was founded by Stan Lee (Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, The Hulk, and Fantastic Four co-creator) with his then-friend, Peter F. Paul in 1998 as Stan Lee Entertainment. Stan Lee Entertainment merged with Stan Lee Media, Inc. of Delaware in April 1999. In July 1999, SLM of Delaware acquired Boulder Capital Opportunities, Inc., a publicly traded company, in a reverse merger structured by investment banker Stan Medley, and through this reverse merger Stan Lee Media became a publicly traded company under the symbol SLEE.
The company won the Best of Show Web Award in November 2000, as the best Entertainment Portal on the internet, beating Warner Bros and Disney's portals.
The company launched the first new team of superheroes to be created by Stan Lee in thirty years, The 7th Portal, at a $1 million gala hosted by Dick Clark at Raleigh Studios on February 29, 2000. The first high concept 'webisode' to be broadcast on the internet, The 7th Portal's worldwide debut crashed the servers of Macromedia's Shockwave web site with millions of viewers.
The President of Sony Digital studios was hired away to become the CEO of Stan Lee Media in June 2000, and a joint venture with the largest anime manga company in Japan resulted in production and distribution deals over the internet, on television and in theme parks in Europe, South America and Asia.
SLM used $4.3 million in stock to purchase Conan Properties Inc., owner of Conan the Barbarian. Plans for a third Conan movie and webisodes were made. With SLM stock price falling below the sale agreement level, a legal battle ensued between with the previous owners, Baums, LSDC, Arthur Lieberman and the de Camps.
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