Valleywag: Marc Bell

Penthouse CEO Marc Bell calls lawsuit threat "blackmail"

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:20:00 PDT

While Richard Bottoms's sexual discrimination case against Penthouse Media Group continues, the Palo Alto man angry with his dismissal from the company tells us he's now planing a new round of suits against the company, seeking $1 in damages. In an email to Penthouse management announcing his plans to sue, Bottoms alleged that company developers were instructed to copy eHarmony.com when building sites Alt.com and Bondage.com.

"The templates created for FriendFinder that generate the pages have Harmony in their file names," Bottoms wrote. In a reply-to-all email, Penthouse Media Group CEO Marc Bell called his threats "blackmail."

Will someone please contact the local office of the FBI and make this idiot go away. The last time I checked blackmail is illegal. Thanks!

Naturally, Bottoms responded by taking a trip to the local FBI office. He called us after his visit. "I'm leaving the FBI building now, and they said ha ha!" Stay with Valleywag for more on this developing story — and, we promise, no jokes about Bottoms's name. (We have to leave the commenters something to do.)

Penthouse plans $250 million public offering

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:20:14 PST

Financier and CEO Marc Bell plans to take Penthouse Media Group public in a $250 million IPO. If investors take the bait, it'll likely be on the strength of Adult FriendFinder and the rest of the Web properties Penthouse bought from Andrew Conru last December for $500 million. After the acquisition, Penthouse projected its 2007 revenues would reach $340 million — most of that from Adult FriendFinder. Some of the proceeds from the IPO, if it succeeds, will go to pay off debt from the acquisition.

Penthouse buys Adult FriendFinder

Owen Thomas — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:29:27 PST

Congratulations, Andrew Conru: Danni Ashe is now your coworker. As the porn-magazine business quietly biodegrades in the ashbin of history, the founder of Adult FriendFinder has sold his company, Various Inc., to Penthouse for $500 million. This despite his earlier denials. The price actually seems low, considering Various's projected revenues this year of $340 million. But the porn business has always suffered from a market discount, as distaste thins the ranks of willing investors. FriendFinder's troubles with the Federal Trade Commission, settled one day before the sale was closed last Friday, can't have helped. What's next for Adult FriendFinder's new owner?

A Penthouse IPO, promised by CEO Marc Bell last year to happen sometime in 2008. We hear he's shooting for April, now that he has a bigger Internet business to flog, one with the requisite buzzwords like "social networking" One thing he'll now have to disclose to investors: Besides Danni.com, Penthouse owns Christian dating site BigChurch.com.