Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/08/18/qxl_knocks_163_500m_off/

QXL knocks £500m off Ricardo price tag

And they don't want Pfeiffer on the board

By Linda Harrison

Posted in On-Prem, 18th August 2000 10:50 GMT

QXL.com has knocked around 75 per cent off its original buyout price for German auction house ricardo.com. QXL has offered 34 QXL shares for each Ricardo share, valuing the company at £171.2 million. Back in May it offered 42.6 QXL shares for each ricardo share - putting a £668 million price tag on the company.

And ex-Compaq head Eckhard Pfeiffer - a Ricardo board member - will no longer join QXL's board.

Meanwhile, Ricardo warned shareholders to expect poorer results in Q4 to the end of June.



Financial news web site TheStreet.com has laid off eight employees in its analysts-ranking division - which literally just ranked industry analysts. This is about three per cent of the company's staff.



According to the The Standard CEO Tom Clarke wrote an internal email which said the amount of resources needed to make the service work did not justify continuing it. "TheStreet.com is focused more than ever on driving profitability. This is the single mission for this firm as we battle to win in our space and defy those who think we will not make it," he wrote.



Internet search engine and directory Hoojit is launching an online guide to British hotels. Some 20,000 hotels have stumped up £100 each to get listed. Hoojit was founded by former Telinco boss Chris Matthews.




Online financial content company GlobalNet is to merge with American Net services company Telescan. GlobalNet will issue two shares for every one of Telescan. The combined company is valued at £220 million and will be called GlobalNetFinancial. One of GlobalNet new shareholders will be M$ founder Paul Allen, who currently owns 8 per cent of Telescan.




Another day, another redundant Net workforce. This time it's Healtheon/WebMD. The company runs an online Web community for people involved in healthcare. It refused to say how many staff it was laying off. CEO Steve Grant said of course that he still had plenty of money and the cuts were part of its strategy to make a profit by 2002. Healtheon/WebMD lost $129 million (£86 million) in the last six-month period on revenue of $167 million. ®



For more dotcom financials, check out Cash Register.