Dot-com Liquidator

Stephen VanDyke writes: "The Lexington Herald-Leader has an interesting article on the day of a "repo man". Marty Pichinson doesn't repossess cars or homes, he goes after companies that flopped." Second in a series.

Comments

eVulture

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, it's eVulture, from Doonesbury! :-)

Re:Instant Karma gonna get you..

[Zico]

In that recent report that said that people on cell phones were more likely to be in accidents, the accident rate for people talking to passengers wasn't all that much lower. How long before passengers are banned from cars, or police start ticketing people for talking?

I still remember when people started pushing for mandatory seat belt laws, dismissing as paranoid nuts anyone who suggested that cops would be pulling drivers over at random to make sure they're wearing seat belts. Well, now that cops are doing exactly that, where are these people now?

Quit asking for the goverment to run everybody's lives for them, they do too much of it already.

Cheers,

Board Members

[Alpha State]

Without court regulations, Pichinson can close a firm in a few weeks and keep the liquidation out of government documents and thus off board members' resumes.

I don't see why this should happen. Particularly if I am the shareholder of a company I want to know the background of the board members. I think it's reasonable to be able to find out which companies they've been on the board of in the past.

Zoho still on monster.com

[sigwinch]

Zoho.com was one of the companies in the article. This is their page on monster.com.

And here's what you'll get as a Zoho employee: The opportunity to be a part of something truly cutting edge, under the leadership of a truly focused, mature executive team. ... So, if you've been searching for a successful career with an industry leader, look no further. Zoho gives you the chance to grow your skills as a professional in a unique environment that blends startup excitement with blue chip stability.

The irony, she is painful! Bwahahahahahahaha!!

Re:Does he get to sell customer mailing list?

[PopeAlien]

Sure! why not? Thats just part of the failed business assets.. And the great thing about mailing lists is that unlike a crate of promotional hats or t-shirts, they can be sold again and again!

..Maybe thats why I keep getting so much spam about how I can make *BIG MONEY* buying and selling email adresses. I feel most sorry for the newbies that drop their one email address into online forms and don't know how to filter their spam -

After becoming dot.compost earlier this year...

[(H)elix1]

What's next for Repo Man? It's his turn now. He's raising a $100 million ``vulture'' fund to buy some of the struggling companies himself, turn them around and sell them for a profit. He's already got a commitment from outside investors for $50 million, and he's pushing for a 35 percent cut on returns way more than the most elite venture firms in the valley.

He may relent and settle for 30 percent.

Now, if this is not poetic justice just waiting to happen. Mu ha ha ha....

Amateur article

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoever wrote this article should be sent back to the 6th grade.

Pichinson was an easy winner, despite his fee of 7.5 percent of the sales about three times the amount of his nearest competitor.

and

He says the toys in one room plastic helmets and squirt guns can go to charity.

Ever hear of a comma, pal? Of course not, you didn't even bother to close the last sentence of the article with a period. Maybe next time you'll dazzle us with iNTeRcAPs, d00d! Sheesh.

Interesting choice of words ...

[OmegaDan]

As the economy leaves wrecked companies in its wake...

The ECONOMY leaves wrecked companies in its wake? I have news for the author: the internet has spawned the greatest percentage of *the stupidest* business plans in all recorded history. Even con-men were on better ground then alot of these internet firms ...

I hate to see stupidity

Has he paid VA Linux a visit yet?

[Anonymous Coward]

If not, he will be soon...

I had to do this last week

[Anonymous Coward]

Our main offices were closing, and we had to pick up ALL the equipment from these people. It was sad, the only people left were a few admins trying to close up shop, and a few bean counters trying to inventory everything. It was easy to see why this office closed. I mean who the hell needs a 10 ft mahonany, and bronze plaque with your logo on it, in the loby when you're an internet company!? The equipment we got from them was top of the line. Their were many racks of stuff that was never even opened, and their were 21 inch monitors everywhere. Considering that most programers at our office use 17 inch monitors and p450 systems, we could see why this division had run out of cash so fast. It's funny, we always thought we were the red headed step child in the company, but it turned out that our division was the only one making money. I had no problems getting the equipment from those over paid, and over perked people.

Repo men are impressive

[harlows_monkeys]

Many years ago (long before the dot.com stuff), I worked at a small Unix workstation company (Callan Data Systems...anyone remember them?). We got behind in the payments on this big machine that did something with blueprints (I'm a programmer...I have no idea what this thing did...but it was big...about 6ft wide and 4ft long, and 3ft tall, and it weighed a lot).

The blueprint machine was in a room in the center of the engineering building. There were two entrances to the building. To go from the front entrance to the blueprint machine room, you would have to go past the office of one of the company owners, and the secretary, and a couple of engineer's offices.

To get to the blueprint machine room from the back door, you would have to go past my office, and the offices of four other programmers.

All the desks in all the aforementioned offices faced their doors, so anyone working could easily see anyone who went down the hall.

One day, the machine was repossesed. It happened between 11am (when someone last used it), and 1pm (when someone tried to use it, and found it was gone). During that time, none of the people in any of the offices I mentioned above went to lunch.

No one saw anything. Evidently, at least two people managed to walk in, go past several people, and carry the machine out, all without being seen.

Oh, the irony...

[legLess]

From the article:

In the last six months, his firm, Sherwood Partners, has picked up 45 ABC assignments, up from none a year ago. He has enlarged his staff to 20 people from six, and will hire five more. "This business has just exploded," he says.

So soon we'll need Meta-Repo-Man, to liquidate all the Repo Men who sprang up to cash in on the .com crash.

"We all say so, so it must be true!"

Reminds me of "Rain on the Scarecrow"

[President of The US]

By John Mellencamp:

The crops we grew last summer weren't enough to pay the loans
Couldn't buy the seed to plant this spring and the Farmers Bank foreclosed
Called my old friend Schepman up to auction off the land
He said John it's just my job and I hope you understand
Hey calling it your job ol' hoss sure don't make it right
But if you want me to I'll say a prayer for your soul tonight

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