iBill Buyer Completes Equity Buy In Revamped Penthouse

The buyers of Internet pay processors iBill have finished buying an equity in 40 percent of the non-voting common stock of Penthouse publishers General Media Inc., which will be renamed Penthouse Media.

The deal awaits only the final steps out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy by General Media, expected to happen next week, Care Concepts said October 5 while announcing the completion of the stock buy.

Under the deal, Care Concepts bought the stock from affiliates of Marc Bell, the Florida financier whose Marc Bell Capital Partners affiliate PET Capital is believed holding 89 percent of General Media's senior notes, backing the Penthouse reorganization.

Bell and partner Daniel C. Staton will run Penthouse and the newly reshuffled media group day-to-day, wihle Care Concepts will have the right to put one of its own people on the Penthouse Media Group board of directors. Bell is believed to be anxious to reshape Penthouse into softening the magazine's legendarily hardcore content in a bid to find a broader audience.

Care Concepts moved to buy iBill from the Penthouse group in August. Last month, Care Concepts delayed closing that buy over a notice the American Stock Exchange would de-list Care Concepts common stock until questions related to the iBill purchase were answered.

The company has insisted they don't plan to renege on buying iBill, planning to close the deal regardless come January 21, 2005, even if the AMEX impasse is not resolved and even if it means withdrawing entirely from AMEX and looking to re-list Care Concepts stock on another trading floor.

iBill was jolted in September when New York's highest court declined to uphold iBill's bid to compel the company’s former processing bank to live up to a purported agreement to help iBill transition to a new processor. However, iBill announced near September's end that they had secured a new processing bank. The company hasn't yet announced the bank officially but a Forbes article suggested it was Long Island-based Merrick Bank.