Amp’d Mobile Inc. quietly filed bankruptcy last week only 17 months after launching its phone and mobile-entertainment services to young customers.
Laden with more than $100 million in debt, the company blamed its aggressive expansion for the Chapter 11 petition it filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. “As a result of our rapid growth, our backend infrastructure was unable to keep up with customer demand,” Amp’d said in a statement on its Web site.
Analyst David Chamberlain blamed the fickle, young customer base and the fragmented market of mobile virtual network operators, which lease their coverage network.
“They’re potentially competitors with the networks they’re working off of,” said Chamberlain of In-Stat. “In effect, they’re sleeping with the enemy.”
Amp’d Mobile reportedly owed $33 million to Verizon Wireless for using its networks and $16 million to Motorola Inc. for the cell phones.
Then there’s the customer base of 18- to 24-year-olds, who are “distracted, fickle and money’s hard to come by,” Chamberlain said.
“One month, it’s the hot cell phone they want to buy and the next month, they’d rather spend that money buying a new game.”
Plus, since about half of U.S. cell phone subscribers are on family plans, Chamberlain said, it’s hard to lure new young customers from mom and dad’s phone plan and keep them.
Oversee.net Bags SnapNames
Oversee.net, a high-tech media company, announced last week that it bought SnapNames, the operator of the largest source of deleted and expired domain names.
Oversee.net monetizes Web sites by offering search engine optimization and advertiser-sponsored consumer portals. It also owns about 600,000 domain names.
Jeff Kupietzky, executive vice president of Oversee.net, said the acquisition means that its customers will have access to about 20,000 deleted or expired domain names that become available every day through Portland-based SnapNames.
“Now we can provide a full life cycle for what customers are looking for,” Kupietzky said. “We buy domain names, sell names and get them monetized. In all three areas, we want to be their preferred service providers.”
Oversee.net, the third-fastest growing private company in Los Angeles County, recently also acquired LowFares.com, a Redondo Beach-based travel rate comparison Web site. Oversee.net employs 160 people and is in expansion mode. It’s moving its downtown office to a bigger space down the street, adding two more floors to its headquarters.
New Interneer CEO
Michael Edell has been named chief executive of Interneer Inc., which offers a Web-based platform for business applications.
The 8-year-old company also received another $2 million in private investment after its first round of $2.5 million in funding last year.
“The company had all the right ingredients for success, but just needed an experienced CEO to put some strategic plans in place,” said Edell, who is also the managing partner of Groundwork Equity LLC, which is responsible for Interneer’s business planning and investment policies. “When the investor saw the new game plan, he was more than ready and willing to make another investment.”
Edell, who previously founded eLabor.com, which was sold to Microsoft and ADP, replaces Andrew Young, who is now vice president of business development.
The new funds will be used to target small- to medium-size businesses. The company’s online platform features downloadable applications for customer relationship management, for example, or project management.
J2Global names CFO
Kathy Griggs has been named chief financial officer of J2Global Communications Inc., a voicemail, fax and e-mail service provider.
Griggs succeeds Scott Turicchi, who remains J2 Global’s co-president and will become chief accounting officer.
Griggs has been a financial consultant since 2004, after serving as chief financial officer for SonicWall, an Internet security company, and QAD Inc., a software company.
The announcement comes on the heels of the company rolling out its voice service in eight European markets and Canada.
Neopets on Nick
Neopets.com, an online community that enables young users to create online pets, will launch TV programming this summer with a series of animated “mini-shows” on Nickelodeon. Produced by Nickelodeon, the shows will air beginning June 23 between regularly scheduled programming.
Neopets was launched in November 1999 by Adam Powell and Donna Williams. In June 2005, Viacom bought Neopets Inc. for $160 million.
While adults might have a tough time grasping the appeal of virtual pets, kids don’t. As of May 2007, Glendale-based Neopets reports 139 million user accounts and 204 million pets.
Staff reporter Booyeon Lee can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230.
