POW! Ent. & Stan Lee To Counter-Sue Valcom

files/pictures/picture-35.jpgIn a statement in response to a Sept. 17th lawsuit filed by Valcom, POW! Ent. Inc. today announced their plans to counter-sue Valcom for more than $10 million. POW! described Valcom's description of its dealings with them as "inaccurate and misleading." The company plans to file its countersuit next week claiming failure to perform and fraud.

POW! and Valcom had entered into a letter of intent to form a joint venture to develop film properties using Valcom funds. POW! claims it terminated its relationship with Valcom when the firm failed to provide the agreed funding. POW! alleges Valcom made only three of the 24 required overhead payments, their first check had bounced, and never provided any of the development funds.

In June 2007, Stan Lee and POW! announced an exclusive first look deal with Disney. Both Lee and POW! claim they presented Valcom with the projects that went to Disney, but moved ahead on their own after terminating the non-binding joint venture agreement upon Valcom's lack of interest in the projects. POW! stated that it had request a binding agreement from Valcom, but never received one.

Later, Valcom filed for bankruptcy protection, and in the bankruptcy court sued POW! and Lee regarding the failed joint venture. In the upcoming countersuit, POW! will claim "that Valcom deceived POW! into entering the [joint venture] relationship to begin with, because Valcom never had the money necessary to perform its obligations in that [joint venture] and had no reasonable basis for believing that it could perform."