One great company after another destroyed by financial shenanigans. Avaya & Silver Lake Partners is another that comes to mind, but there have been many.
Company 1: The company went bankrupt, founder renamed the company, started a new company with the same name as the original, transferred some assets for pennies on the dollar. It later went public, but collapsed in the dot-com crash.
Company 2: Company raised $50 million during the dot-com boom. After 5 or so years, it still did not have much revenue to speak of. After several down rounds, it was eventually was sold to a major corporation for pennies on the dollar. All common stock was worthless.
Company 3: Still working on it. There have been several down rounds. All employees got their options re-issued at the lower price after a key employee threatened to walk...
I'm all for letting a company die out, but jesus it looks like there were a ton of shady business dealings, hidden partners, reverse mergers and other sketchy moves.
This article should, at the very least, be a warning sign to anybody who thinks about investing with, or going to work for any of the people associated with any of the firms listed in the article.
Corporate implosions of the dot-com era are fantastic reads. I was a part of the Northwestern Corporation, Expanets, Lucent fiasco. It was crazy the decisions that were made. I spec'ed a million dollar Sun Hardware purchase, my boss turned it into a $25 million 5 year, rental at a Quest DC in Denver.
We also had an entire floor of an Arthur Andersen building in Jersey where we were writing our new app. There was another floor that was off limits to anyone not a partner. A friend of mine saw trucks of document boxes come in. The paper shredders were working overtime there, we assume anyway.
Expanets didn't need to go down that way, greed and stupidity are powerful drugs.
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