Just two days after it announced it would trade its stock on the OTC Bulletin Board, Interactive Billing (iBill) owner Interactive Brand Development said Radium Ventures acquired adult content delivery company Interactive Television Networks Inc. (formerly XTV) – in which IBD held a minority stake – in a deal bringing IBD more than 5.5 million shared of Radium common stock.
"We are excited that ITVN has completed the public merger, which will raise its profile in the investment community as a public media company, and we believe being a public company will assist it in growing its subscriber network," said IBD chief executive Steve Markley in a statement announcing the merger June 30.
"ITVN leverages home broadband, an existing infrastructure, to bypass the massive costs of cable and satellite delivery," said a statement from Charles Prast, the former Private Media Group executive who was named ITVN's new chief executive. "And since Internet content is known for being far more interactive and broad in scope than anything that can be offered over traditional networks, consumers nationwide will have access to a variety of content at a great value."
Prast also joined the Radium board of directors as part of the new deal.
ITVN includes adult programming, news, music, and Internet content as well as on-screen viewing and management of personal media including still images and videos, according to IBD.
For Vancouver-based Radium Ventures, the move is a step away from the company’s former work producing a proprietary software program, Einscribe, on behalf of document editing services.
Two days before announcing the ITVN-Radium deal, IBD said its common shares would be quoted and traded on the OTC Bulletin Board as of June 28, under the IBDI symbol.
In February, IBD dropped its appeal of an American Stock Exchange de-listing of its common stock following months of turmoil involving former iBill processing bank First Data and several lawsuits involving iBill from such hitters as Cybersocket, Chi Chi LaRue, Bondage.com, Badpuppy, and others.
In April, in the middle of a massive revitalization effort, IBD began making long-overdue iBill payments to clients after disputed First Data payments finally began to arrive.
