Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2001/03/26/bob_geldof_sells_deckchair_com/
Bob Geldof sells Deckchair.com
He don't like Mondays
Posted in On-Prem, 26th March 2001 12:07 GMT
Sir Bob Geldof's travel Web site Deckchair.com has been sold to rival World Travel Holdings for £3.2 million, with a possible £6 million over the next three years depending how well it performs.
The online booking service was valued at £20 million during the dotcom boom, but since then has had trouble, making a quarter of its staff redundant last month. It has a quarter of a million customers but losses have been building up.
In 1999, it lost just under £2 million but last year that increased just under £7 million. That said, takings increased in the same ratio, with £452,000 being made in 2000, compared to £110,000 in 1999.
The company was started in April 1999 by Sir Bob and James Page, a former exec at games company Eidos.
Sir Bob is famous for being lead singer in the Boomtown Rats, being Paula Yates' first husband and organising Live Aid - who invested some of the money he made form selling his TV production company Planet 24.
At the launch of the site, Bob was in typical form: "It shows how sad you all are, coming to the launch of something as boring as an Internet site," he told the assembled. Good lad. ®