Bidland has closed.
The San Diego-based company, which provided auction software for such sites as the ill-fated NBCi, said it will do no more business after yesterday.
Bidland survived on just three employees for the last six weeks, down from a high of 70.
A note on the home page said, “Bidland Systems, Inc. regrets to announce that it is indefinitely suspending operations on May 13, 2001. No more sign-ups will be taken at this time.”
Bidland raised and spent $22 million dollars.
Some $15 million of it came in March 2000 from Robertson Stephens’ affiliates, T.I. Capital, XL Ventures and others.
The company was crippled by a lawsuit against Spanish company Telefonica, a shortage of capital and a lack of customers. It only had between 100 and 200, according to estimates.
According to AuctionWatch.com, CEO Douglas Augustine e-mailed customers last week blaming “working capital concerns,” and “the outcome of litigation commenced against a third party.”
Last December, the company sued the Spanish telco and its Miami subsidiary, Telefonica B2B Holdings, claiming breach of contract and seeking $500 million in damages. Bidland believed Telefonica had reneged on a promise to invest in the company, causing all of its troubles.
Michael Briggs, Bidland’s general counsel, said, “The actions taken by Telefonica significantly crippled the company.”
Calls to Bidland were greeted by a phone message complaining about the lawsuit.
BroadBand Office Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last Thursday, canning 348 staff and keeping a skeleton crew of 35 for five weeks.
Also filing Chapter 11 last week was COLO.com, a San Francisco colocation ompany. “Colocation” is the service that leases office space, builds out rooms, cages, racks and air conditioning for banks of servers. The company’s customers include long distance carriers, local exchange carriers, Internet Service Providers and others needing to deploy rapidly to the network’s edge.