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Business.com Owner Files for Bankruptcy

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R. H. Donnelley files for bankruptcy to get out of debt load.

Yellow pages directory publisher and Business.com owner R.H. Donnelly has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

R.H. Donnelley is a yellow pages publisher that saw the writing on the wall a couple years ago. It decided to grab a bigger piece of the online directory pie by plunking down $345 million for Business.com.

In a press release, the company cited the weakening economy for necessitating bankruptcy:

Our growth-through-acquisition strategy never anticipated the cataclysmic collapse of the U.S. economy and the local advertising market. As a result of these developments, earlier this year we began negotiating with our lenders to restructure our debt and provide the company with a more sustainable capital structure that reflects the current economic realities,” said David C. Swanson, chairman and CEO of R.H. Donnelley.

Marc Ostrofsky’s sale of Business.com in 1999 catapulted the domain name aftermarket to the center stage. The press widely reported the sale as $7.5M. But according to the buyer, the stock it paid for the domain ended up being redeemed for $2.0M.

SOURCE:
Domain Name Wire » News » Business.com Owner Files for Bankruptcy - The Domain Industry's News Source


Does anyone knows why the fail ?
What went wrong ?
 
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Humm...
Just few months ago, they bought YP.com
 
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That was exactly my thought.. Seems like one heck of an expensive purchase for a company going under.

Humm...
Just few months ago, they bought YP.com
 
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Does anyone knows why the fail ?
What went wrong ?

Smaller YP Publisher (ie not Verizon or YellowPages.com).

Yellow Page advertising taking a big hit just like newspapers.

Some markets have 3 or 4 YP Publishers. That won't last.
 
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time to backorder business.com ? :sold:
 
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So whats the company's status? Stocks gone very low?
 
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So whats the company's status? Stocks gone very low?
The stock was trading at $0.062 per share at the time of this post. Market cap $4.27M.
 
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Buy business.com for $4.27M
For $4.27M you get the whole shebang, 100% of Donnelley including assets such as business.com and post-chapter 11 liabilities.

Restructuring FAQS:
"Will you consider asset sales? At this point, we are not contemplating any asset sales and do not anticipate the need to sell any assets as a result of this restructuring.

Is liquidation a possibility? ... We are not contemplating liquidation and we are not going out of business..."
 
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For $4.27M you get the whole shebang, 100% of Donnelley including assets such as business.com and post-chapter 11 liabilities.

That's the real hook... 4.27m is piss in a bucket in the world of business. A typical Friday night poker game at the right NYC, LA or Chicago country club could raise that amongst themselves without having to leave the table and anyone losing sleep over the outlay... but, if in order to acquire the assets you also have to assume 100m worth of debt on top of them, well...

DEpending on what RHDs earning profiles look like (which in turn will impact their post Chapter 11 debt structure), we might see a buyer spin off the better parts of the business and jettison the rest into a debt laden package of sinking-ship crap. Unlikely business.com goes on that ship.

I know the earlier posters were just kidding, but for those who might be naive enough to take them seriously, no, don't bother backordering business.com. There is a 0.00% chance this drops.
 
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I remember when they said the chance of landing a man on the moon was 0.00%... Women voting.. Black people's equality..

0.00% does not exist, my friend. ;):ghost::hehe:

I know the earlier posters were just kidding, but for those who might be naive enough to take them seriously, no, don't bother backordering business.com. There is a 0.00% chance this drops.
 
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GM and Chrysler will come out stronger. If RHD can erase the debt, then better for them.
 
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There's no way you can buy business.com for $4.7 million. Because you would have to buy over 50% of the stock and then privatize the company. In order to do so, you have to pay out the rest of the 50% ownership with some kind of premium or they wont sell.

According to Yahoo insiders own 30% of the stock. If you buy anywhere up to 30%, the insiders would only need about 20+% to gain majority rights to cancel you out anytime.
 
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Right.
A multi-million dollar asset* being "let go" during a chapter 11 proceeding is about as likely as someone flying to the moon by flapping their teeth... but OK. There's a reason Vegas stays in business.

Place your bets, fellas. Place your bets... A lady in New York found a Rembrandt in a dumpster, so everyone dive in...

* it isn't like they registered this in 1992 and it's just been languishing there, forgotten and unused. It's a clearly denominated asset that they paid millions of dollars for and is unquestionably totally, totally accounted for. Business.com dropping in the midst of a chapter 11 proceeding is about as likely as google.com dropping because Brin's credit card was declined.
 
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Does anyone knows why the fail ?
What went wrong ?

Probably the same reason most businesses fails...revenue is less than expense. Has anyone here ever visited the site? I doubt many have. I am in business and have rarely heard anything about them other than what they paid for the domain. I think their whole marketing strategy was only the domain name. Maybe they didn't have any money left to promote their services. Maybe they just assumed type-ins alone would be enough to pay for that domain and it's overhead.

It is a little ironic that their newsletter on the front page is called "What works for Business - Get fresh ideas for managing & growing your business.". I don't know if I need business advise from a company having trouble staying in business while using the name business.com....
 
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It is a little ironic that their newsletter on the front page is called "What works for Business - Get fresh ideas for managing & growing your business.". I don't know if I need business advise from a company having trouble staying in business while using the name business.com....
After this, I guess no one would for sure :)
 
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What he did not know was that IDN's had not been invented and released yet (supposedly).....but he tried to register two IDN domains anyhow. One was Español.com, with the tilda mark, and I forgot the other one. Apparantly, those who implemented the IDN structure had done so but not told the public yet. Anyhow, this poor teenage kid from Venezuela was now the owner of the Español.com domain and had contacted an American lawyer to help him sell it. I don't know what ever happened to him or his domains. He just rolled his poor ass into town and regged two domains and had assets worth a small fortune.

Point being, anything in this world can happen. Want another example? Sex.com stolen.



The real irony is now the domain is parked heh...but great story about never giving up!
 
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Ok, i think it is time to offer my domain Buisness dot info for sale :)

Cheers

Liquid
 
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