Almost three years worth of trying to get the deal done has now gotten it done - European buyer Jim Mackay's purchase of Chisel.com from Starnet Communications is completed, and Chisel spokesman Brent Stevenson says it's as good as getting the world off their shoulders.
"Just having to go through all that, it's hard to move forward when you've got that on your back," Stevenson said. "Now that it's over and done, we can focus on what we do best - operating pay sites and providing adult Webmaster content."
Starnet created Chisel as the first gay adult Website among several they launched, but with the publicly traded company's stock rising - not to mention a round of law enforcement raids against them in 1999 and 2000 - Starnet decided it was more prudent to back away from adult entertainment and focus on its other major interest, online gaming.
At first, Chisel looked to be heading for Las Vegas-based ownership, until Mackay showed an interest and moved to buy the Web outfit. The moves provoked a few rounds of litigation, but Stevenson said that's all been settled and put away.
Originally an almost strictly-gay oriented adult Web outfit, Chisel has been branching toward the heterosexual adult Net more of late. Stevenson said they have sixteen Websites of both persuasions, plus leasing six straight plugins to its 17 gay plugin leasings.
"We have been pushing the gay side really strongly," he said, "it's kind of our strong point, but we want to balance it out, which is what we're planning on doing. We want to have more straight video feeds, more straight Websites."
The coming year, now that the sale is behind Chisel, is going to be one word, Stevenson said: "Great."
