http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/busin...ess/5184585.htm

47300 subscribers and 81 million in the hole...

$200,000 in back rent only since December? What the fuck are these guys renting, best space in SanFran?

Idiots.

Alex

I am suprised they lasted this long, and they could still find creditors to lend them money.... it was obviously a tar pit for investors, yet people still kept sinking tons of money into it....

crazy....

I dunno...so far,
my entire investment in
http://danspitz.com was less than round trip ticket to Italy
;-)))

we have 64 subscribers and NOT a penny in a hole
;-)))

Mike, I think the "attractiveness" of the site is that it typically is well written and relatively open minded. it has the potential (and often has) broken the barriers between beer drinkers and the wine and cheese crowd.

47,000 subscribers (paid, from what I can tell) is a damn good thing. But I can really see a real world spin on the way the company is operating - Even at $5 per month, they are taking in maybe 250k a month, and it looks like their rent is at least 100k a month. They forgot that they are working a virtual business, and spent real money on things that clients never see.

Too bad, there will be a hole to fill there, that is for sure.

Alex

I used to hang out on their chat boards a few years ago, quite a lively group, it will be a shame to see it go.

Yup... KK and I were "Table Talk Tarts." We "met" on the Salon boards, and after finding out I built adult sites, she directed me to Netpond and the wonderful world of adult webmaster boards. :bjump:

The rest is, as they say, history!

Ah well, another one bites the dust...

That is sooo right Rox, I saw your name on this thread and bing! the lightbulb came on...

Do you remember the summer that Angeline Delacroix came over from Australia and schlepped around the states coming to see all of us?

i'd be willing to bet that i could turn salon into a profit maker in under 90 days.

i think i'm gonna call them monday... will report back on what they say. could be a fun project :)

Hooper, problem is now you have to overcome not only a money loser, but 81 million of existing debt... just servicing that kind of debt takes probably 7-10 million a year...

Good luck!

Alex

I do remember that, KK! I didn't get to meet Angeline, but one of the other Tarts, Debbie Chaisson, came out here to visit with her family a few years ago and I took them on a tour of the Warner Hollywood lot and over to Rob's shop. Her 9-yo son was thrilled to bits to see where J-Lo was filming "The Cell" and even more excited when Rob showed him some of the "Star Wars" toys in prototype.

Table Talk is where it all began for me; the birth of a board whore. :rokk: Even at work, my "experience" with message boards (whoredom LOL) is well-known enough that I ended up with the care & feeding of the WB boards, and no one bats an eye if I spend a few hours posting here & there and everywhere during the times when I'm in between actual work tasks. Some of my co-workers build 3D models or develop games or apps or whatever, during their down time -- me, I run rampant on message boards, under any number of usernames. And get paid to do it! Life is good! :cdance:

That board certainly was interesting, some way out discussions went on, you know the ones that make the webmaster boards look tame lol...

Hooper, good luck
that would be interesting if you get it.
dont worry about debt, that can be whiped out with the purchase .

remember excite.com was sold for only $10 million.

thinking about it, i bet even I can turn that site around.

just change the layout a little and make it look like cnn.com with web search. Sell that traffic to overture and you got extra cash flow. PPC ads worked for ask.com. They can work here.

Yup, you could just buy the assets you need/want from them (or their receiver) and not take on the debt.

There was a great little segment on CNBC yesterday about commercial real estate and lessees. It has gone from a glut market to one where prices are dropping all the time in order to fill space. Empty buildings are dotting the horizon.

San Fran was one of the hardest hit given all their dotcom companies that have gone tits up.

Monk, its scary some times how empty downtown SF is durring the day and lunch times. I heard few months ago that 40% of office space in downtown is empty right now.