Boo.com's buyer becomes takeover target

Fashionmall valued at $52m

Boo.com buyer Fashionmall.com has become a takeover target. Consumer products marketing group GenesisIntermedia has made an offer and values Fashionmall at $7 a share or $52 million (£34.6 million). It bought Boo's brand and logo for £250,000.

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Pets.com will hold a stockholders meeting on 16 January to finalise liquidation plans for the failed online pet-supply retailer. There will also be a vote on changing the restructured company's name to IPET.

If the stockholders agree, all the company's assets will go to auction. This is expected to raise $0.25 per share for stockholders. They had been as high as $14 prior to the company calling things quits back on 7 November 2000.

Amazon owns 24.5 per cent of Pets.com stock, Pets.com top brass own 44 per cent. On December 13 the company restated its final proxy statement saying it would give CEO Julia Wainwright and nine other execs retention bonuses of up to $225,000 and redundancy of as much as $235,000.

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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is dismantling its two joint ventures with online healthcare group WebMD. News Corp will take WebMD's 50 per cent stake in the jointly owned Health Network TV channel. In turn WebMD will take News Corp's 50 per cent stake in their Internet joint venture aimed at offering online services to hospitals, doctors, and pharmacies. The ventures were unveiled a year ago. ®

For more Net cash tales visit Cash Register.