Suit Alleges CMGI Breach of Contract

A former president of NBC Television, Neil Braun, has accused CMGI Inc. of refusing to honor an employment contract worth at least $50 million in CMGI stock. In a federal lawsuit filed in Manhattan, Braun says CMGI, which runs several venture capital funds investing in Internet companies, hired him in February to help develop a “strategy for becoming the preeminent broadcaster of entertainment on the Internet.” In addition to an annual salary and bonus of $300,000, Braun says he was promised an option to purchase 122,000 shares of CMGI stock over four years, as well as 3% of the shares in a subsidiary firm, ICast Corp., that Braun was to run. Braun says he developed a business plan to present audio and video entertainment over the Internet but was fired in November because of “friction” with CMGI Chairman David Wetherell, a defendant in the suit. Braun says he was told at the time that he would receive only one-year’s worth of CMGI and ICast options. A spokeswoman for Andover, Mass.-based CMGI said the company would not comment. CMGI’s shares rose more than 25% last week after an analyst’s recommendation and have increased more than tenfold this year. The shares rose $7.31 to close at $278.13 on Nasdaq. News of the lawsuit came after the markets closed.