Dear Comsys-ga,
Thank you for this interesting question.
These days it's not easy being a dot-com. Stock prices are down,
new money is scarce, and layoffs are common. The list of casualties
is impressive. My search returned the following results:
I located TheStandard.com's Flop Tracker at the Internet Archive
Wayback Machine. The Flop Tracker lists dot-coms that are no longer
in business and includes a short summary explaining what happened to
each one. The following rundown of failed dot-coms are just a very few
of the many companies you can catch sight of at the links listed
below.I am providing direct links because the search feature doesn’t
work; it seems that TheStandard.com's Flop Tracker is a flop as well.
Savvio.com
Sector: Travel, E-commerce
“Explanation: Unable to find additional funding. Experiencing heavy
competition from airlines and cruise operators.”
GE VentureMine
Sector: Consulting/Services, Finance
“Explanation: Ceasing external operations January 13. GE Equity will
use the product internally. The service matched investors with
entrepreneurs and is closing because of decreased investor interest in
the market”.
Foodline.com
Sector: E-commerce, Restaurant information and reservations site
“Explanation: Company filed for bankruptcy protection, laid off all of
its employees and is in the process of selling its assets. Its backers
included American Express, Zagat Survey, Ticketmaster
Online-CitySearch and Kestrel Venture Management.”
BizBuyer.com
Sector: B-to-b marketplace
“Explanation: Second round of funding led by CMGI; third led by Rustic
Canyon Ventures (then TMCT Ventures) and included CMGI, Staples,
Intel,Excite, eCompanies and US Venture Partners. Spent the past year
working to build transaction volume. Considered merger or sale of the
company, before deciding to sell its assets and return a large part of
the $68 million investment to backers. A 10 person transition team is
working on winding down the company, and the other 88 employees were
let go. The company also laid off 30 people in May 2000.”
Riffage.com
Sector: Media/Entertainment, Music
“Explanation: Could not find an appropriate acquisition match.”
HearMe
Sector: Technology, Voice communication software
“Details: Winding down operations due to the economic slowdown in the
telecommunications sector. It is attempting to sell its assets.
Originally known as Mpath Interactive, it became HearMe in September
1999.”
RhythmsNetConnections Inc
Sector: Telecom/ISP, DSL provider
“Details: Filed for Chapter 11 on August 2 and sent 31-day service
termination notices to all of its customers. "During the next 31 days,
Rhythms intends to assist its customers in transitioning their
existing digital subscriber line services to alternative broadband
providers."
Metricom, Inc.
Sector: Technology, Wireless data company
“Details: The Company has been delisted from NASDAQ and has filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a press release it said, "Following
yesterday's hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Jose, the
Company's Board of Directors determined to cease operation of the
Company's Ricochet network on Wednesday, August 8, 2001, to conduct an
orderly wind down of the Company's business and to sell its assets.
The sale of the Company's technology assets is expected to be
conducted by auction on August 16, 2001."
SportBrain, Inc.
Sector: E-commerce, Web-enabled exercise device
Details: Unable to obtain the funds needed to stay in business.
eVoice Inc.
Sector: Telecom/ISP, Voice messaging service
“Details: A message on the company's Web site reads, "eVoice
voicemail services are no longer being offered to new subscribers.
Existing users can continue to access messages here till your
voicemail box is disconnected." Customers should be receiving shut
down orders in the mail, according to its customer service department.
The company, which changed its name from TalkStar.com in October 1999,
received $11 million in funding from Worldview Technology Partners,
Nokia Ventures and Oak Investment Partners in June 1999. It received
another $38 million in funding in January 2000.”
WorldStream
Sector: Technology, Streaming media
“Details: Unable to obtain the funds needed to stay in business.
Backed by Crosspoint Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners. “
iNEXTV Corp
Sector: Media/Entertainment, Internet video content
“Details: The internet video subsidiary of Ampex Corporation is being
closed because Apmpex is having "difficulty in obtaining additional
funding for iNEXTV due to adverse capital market conditions for
Internet-based companies." Ampex also announced that it will no longer
invest in its partially-owned affiliates AENTV in Los Angeles and TV.1
de in Munich, Germany.”
Handtech.com
Sector: Technology, Business services
“Details: Unable to raise sufficient capital to continue operations.
Founded by former Dell executives Andrew Harris and Martin Slagter as
Hand Technologies. Backed by Federated Department Stores, which owned
about 30% of the company.”
eLaw.com
Sector: Portal, Resources for law firms
“Details: Unable to secure the funds needed to stay in business.
Backed by Austin Ventures.”
GreaterGood.
Sector: E-commerce, Charity shopping portal
Founded: 1999
“Details: Unable to generate enough advertising revenue to remain in
business. Backed by Madrona Investment Group, ARCH Venture Partners
and Olympic Venture Partners.”
Point.com
Sector: E-commerce, Wireless products
Founded: Oct. 1995
“Details: Unable to sustain business needed in order to continue
operations, according to reports.”
eToys Inc.
Sector: E-commerce, Toys
Founded: 1998
“Details: KB Toys and its subsidiary, KBkids.com, bought all of eToys
remaining assets.”
Firetalk Communications
Sector: Consulting/Services, Internet-based voice communication
Founded: July 1999
“Details: Unable to secure additional funding.”
Broadband Sports
Sector: Media/Entertainment, Sports
Founded: 1999
“Details: Unable to sustain business due to current advertising
conditions affecting content Web sites. Attempting to sell its
assets.”
Swoon
Sector: Media/Entertainment, Sex and relationship content
“Details: CondéNet-owned Web site will shut down at the end of the
year because it did not present enough e-commerce possibilities.
Employees working on this site were shifted to other positions within
CondéNet.”
Pets.com, Inc.
Sector: E-commerce, Pet
“Details: Planning to sell assets after unsuccessful search for
capital or a buyer. Backed by Amazon.com and Hummer Winblad. Bought
rival Petstore.com's assets when it closed.”
HomeWarehouse.com
Sector: E-commerce, Home
“Details: Received funding in Dec. 1999 from Comdisco Ventures ($9
million); also backed by Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital. Unable to
find more funds and will be sold to Wal-Mart.”
Toysmart.
Sector: E-commerce, Toy
“Details: Even with $45 million in funding from Disney, the firm
could not compete in the crowded online toy market. “
Source of the above summaries:
TheStandard.com's Flop Tracker
By Katie Motta and Amanda Christensen
TheStandard.com's Flop Tracker.
The following are the direct links to the summaries that I couldn’t
post due to length.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010119180300/http://search.thestandard.com/texis/trackers/flop
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819225040/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=25
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819230300/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=50&skip=50
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819225041/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=75
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819225041/http://www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=100
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819225041/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=125
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819225044/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=150
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819225046/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=175
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819225047/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=200
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819225047/http://www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=225
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819225051/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266&skip=250
http://web.archive.org/web/20010819214952/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=266
http://web.archive.org/web/20010815235442/www.thestandard.com/trackers/flop?marker=Y&total_count=259
Departed Internet Companies, including statements from Company
executives are listed here:
Upside Website
http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/graveyard/index?year=2001
Additionally, I've located another internet resource at the Fortune
Website. There is a huge list of failed dot-coms however no details
are provided.
Fortune Website
http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=205619
Additional information that may interest you:
Stay up-to-date about Dot Com Problems and Failures
ITwatchdog.com's “Com-Doom News” (updated several times per day)
http://www.itwatchdog.com/NewsFeeds/HeadlinesDotcomDoom.html
The following article describes why so many Internet companies have
shut down. “Top Ten Lessons from the Internet Shakeout”
Webmergers Website
http://www.webmergers.com/editorial/article.php?id=48
Search criteria:
dot-com casualties
dot-com failures
dot-Com flop tracker
I hope you find this information helpful.
Best Regards,
Bobbie7-ga |
