Ex-Boo staff offer services to Hollywood

Midas Touch bar hosts dotcom reunion

By Linda Harrison • Get more from this author

Posted in e-Business, 24th May 2001 11:57 GMT

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Having Boo.com on your CV is not the kiss of death.

That's according to a group of former workers of the failed sportswear e-tailer, who were found chatting in London's West End last week at a reunion to mark the first anniversary of Boo's collapse.

The Guardian, which got one of its reporters to infiltrate the group's meeting at The Midas Touch bar, reckons that being an ex-Booer is a boost to career development.

The assembled group were part of one of the most infamous dotcom disasters - Boo chomped through $135 million of venture capital in less than a year before shutting its doors.

But many of the former employees managed to move onto jobs at telecoms companies and other dotcoms, including BT and Antfactory.

One confided: "When a company saw I'd worked at Boo it practically got me a job on the spot."

More chitchat at the reunion revolved around rumours that Boo founders Ernst Malmsten and Kajsa Leander were planning a book, and possibly a film, about the company's short history.

"They're entrepreneurs. We all tried to make something of the experience, so why not them as well?" commented one former staffer.

Another confirmed that they had been approached by the ghost writer of Malmsten's book.

"I'm not sure how much more they can squeeze out of this," they told the Guardian.

"But I'd like to appear as myself in the film." ®