Stan Lee Media, Weak on Funds, Halts Production
The creator of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four found a villain even his fabled creations couldn’t beat: the markets.
Stan Lee Media Inc., out of time and money, laid off its 140-member staff and suspended production at its Encino headquarters as it struggles to find new financing.
The company, named for the man who created The X-Men, The Avengers and other comic book heroes, had secured bridge financing of $2.2 million and an equity line of up to $40 million. But the agreements were contingent on the company’s stock price, which fell below $1 a share last week.
On Monday, trading was halted on Nasdaq when shares fell to 13 cents.
“The market put us in a very vulnerable position,” John Cassell, director of special projects and one of the few remaining executives at the company, said Monday before trading was halted. “What would have been routine financing was affected by these strange market conditions.”
Cassell said the company would continue to operate and try to find new financing.
Cassell said the market may have painted his company with a broad “dot-com” brush, punishing it because part of its operations were on the Internet.
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