

Why We’re Selling Our Angel-Funded Software Company … On eBay  - shabadoozie
http://roachpost.com/2010/02/17/why-were-selling-our-business-on-ebay-2/

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tbgvi
I read they've had $2.5m in investment. I'm sure their board is loving this
right now... must have been a fun meeting to attend.

As for the discussion about how many customers they have etc.. Would you
continue using a service like this that was just sold on eBay? They're not
going to have any customers by the time the auction ends.

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fnid2
it'll probably take more than a week to switch to a new video vault. You have
to update links and move a lot of stuff. Depending on how locked-in the
customers are, it could take quite a bit longer than a week to move.

But yes, you're right. This company is dead and no one is going to pay $500k
for it. They may get $25k for the patents, but the servers, development
environment and a rad pool table are not worth $475k.

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axod
This should be quite interesting. $500k for 100 customers seems pricey though,
but stranger things happen.

Flippa.com seems to have pretty good pricing for selling websites though:
<http://flippa.com/pricing> (Capped at $498 max)

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dangrossman
Flippa would've been the better venue for this. They get 6-figure listings
pretty often now, cost less, format the listings better for selling websites,
etc. For the buyers, they have very detailed search ("give me sites that are 2
years old, make at least $10,000 monthly in profit, have at least 50,000
monthly visitors, and accept escrow for payment"), e-mail alerts, RSS feeds.

I have a site for sale there now:
[http://flippa.com/auctions/84185/11000month-Revenue-No--
1-In...](http://flippa.com/auctions/84185/11000month-Revenue-No--1-In-
Market-1500-Customers)

~~~
axod
I agree. Also eBay is quite full of scammy "Ready made website for sale!!!"
listings.

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bemmu
I've been checking Flippa from since it was still a part of SitePoint, and
about 80% of their listings are those "turn key" sites. Of the remaining ones,
there is usually something fishy, like selling copyrighted content etc.
Occasionally there do seem to be legit sites for sale as well, and having a
separate category for "premium sites" has helped.

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fnid2
I'm skeptical anyone would buy a company the founders just want to ditch. Why
aren't they saying they'll work for the acquirer for a year? Without that,
figuring out how all the code works and how the infrastructure is arranged
will be very very difficult if possible at all.

$500k is a lot of money for something with no support and no guarantee it will
work without the people who put it together.

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maxklein
They seem like a bunch of people who have no idea how to run a business. They
have spent a year trying to raise enough money to run for a year? That does
not make sense.

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wallflower
Where is the Buy it Now button? Next to the Due Diligence button?

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muhfuhkuh
I like how their auction uses youtube to market their _online video marketing
platform_.

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swombat
Can I pay with Paypal?

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dangrossman
According to their listing, yes.

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Seiwynn
I love the "Free Shipping" sticker on the left side of the ebay page.

I can't imagine selling a company on ebay, I wouldnt think that people visit
ebay looking for companies to purchase.

That said, if it does work out for them, it probably is at a lower commission
than other more standard methods.

