Stan Lee Media

 Stan Lee Media was founded by American pop icon Stan Lee  in order to establish the foremost Super Hero creation,  production,  marketing and distribution studio in Hollywood.  The company capitalizes on the brand recognition and good will created during the sixty year career of Stan Lee as the founder of Marvel Comics, the "Walt Disney" of Super Heroes, known in more than 110 countries to three generations of fans.

The company was incorporated by Stan Lee, the founder and Chairman, in Los Angeles, California in October, 1998 as Stan Lee Entertainment Inc.  In June, 1999  it  went public through a reverse merger and was listed on NASDQ  from September, 1999 through March, 2001 under the symbol SLEE.

The company became the largest internet animation studio in Hollywood beating Disney and Warner Bros. as the best Entertainment Portal in 2000. It  partnered with IBM,  Macromedia, Organic Online,  FOX Kids, Time Warner Online, The  Backstreet Boys, and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's Estate.

 It owned the Conan the Barbarian franchise and was producing two $200 million live action features, one with Warner Bros. and the  Matrix's Wachovsky Brothers and the other with Mark Canton on The Seventh Portal. It was awarded the 2000 Web Award for best Entertainment Portal on the internet. 

During the dot com market meltdown of the last quarter of 2000. the company ran out of cash and could not access the equity markets to maintain  its  "just in time"  funding strategy. Because of the company's inability to raise critical operating capital in November, 2000, it closed operations on December 19, 2000.

On February 12, 2001, while under the control of Stan Lee as Chairman, the company filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 Reorganization, while remaining as Debtor in Possession. The company remained under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection until the US Trustee for the Central District of California  moved to dismiss the bankruptcy for cause in October, 2006. On November 14, 2006, the Chapter 11 proceedings were dismissed and control of the company reverted to shareholders for the first time since 2001. 

During the Bankruptcy the company abandoned its NASDQ listing .

On December 7, 2006, at a Special Shareholders meeting, one of America's foremost whistleblowers on Wall Street corruption, James L. Nesfield (who worked with NY Attorney General Elliot Spitzer to expose billions in damages to public investors in unethical business practices by the Mutual Fund industry) was elected as Chairman and appointed President of  SLM as of  November 15, 2006. 

At the Shareholder's meeting it was resolved to move the principal office of the company to Engelhard, North Carolina and to conduct a forensic analysis of all actions taken by the management of the company since the last quarter of 2000, and by the Debtor in Possession since the February, 2001 bankruptcy filing, in order to marshal assets  and identify claims owned by the company after it was dismissed from bankruptcy as of December 7, 2006.

The company retained the Florida based The Andersen Firm as its chief litigation counsel  in February, 2007  to represent the company in its efforts  to enforce it's 50% co-ownership interest in all of the revenues Marvel Entertainment receives from its copyrights on Stan Lee's Marvel co-creations, including Spider Man, X-Men, etc. On March 15, 2007, suit was filed against Marvel Entertainment for an accounting of the revenues due Stan Lee Media.

The Andersen Firm associated  Pierce O'Donnell's  Los Angeles firm of O'Donnell and Associates, one of the nation's preeminent trial lawyers, to represent the company in enforcing the  Employment and Rights Assignment Agreement made by Stan Lee when he incorporated Stan Lee Media in 1998. That Rights Assignment, which includes the permanent assignment of Stan Lee's name and likeness to the company, is the principal asset of the company. The O'Donnell firm filed suit against Stan Lee and his new public company, POW Entertainment, on July 9, 2007 to recover assets and damages resulting from unauthorized transfers of assets from Stan Lee Media while it was in Chapter 11.

The company has been successful in identifying multi-million dollar assets and claims that remain as substantial assets of the company after the company emerged from its Chapter 11 proceedings.

The Company's  10KB Annual Report for 1999,  filed with the SEC in March, 2000, explains the original business objectives of the company and describes its principal assets as all the intellectual property rights owned by Stan Lee as of October 15, 1998. Those rights included Stan Lee's name. likeness, and all of his co-creator's rights to all of his super hero creations for Marvel.