Friday, September 17, 2010
Demand Media Sweetens Executive Pot
Ahead of its IPO, Santa Monica-based Demand Media, the online domain name and media publishing business run by Richard Rosenblatt, updated its IPO filings Thursday, saying that it has granted $30.8M in additional, stock-based compensation to its executive officers, if the firm completes an IPO before March of next year. According to the new S-1, it has awarded grants to officers to acquire 11.7 million of its shares, upon the completion of an IPO before March 31, 2011. Among other updates the firm added to its S-1 filing, the firm reported it now has eight patents granted--up from five--for its intellectual property, and an additional sixteen pending in the United States and other jurisdictions. It also appears that Demand Media has responded to a report issued in June that the firm's eNom subsidiary was knowingly profiting from illegal pharmaceuticals sales; Demand reports it has recently entered into an agreement with LegitScript LLC, an Internet pharmacy verification and monitoring service, to help it identify customers violating its terms of service by operating online pharmacies. Security research firm KnujOn had reported in June that eNom was hosting a number of "criminal pharmacy networks" and had not agreed to cooperate with LegitScript on rooting out those networks; it appears Demand Media is now actively trying to address that problem.