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Not So "Fab": From $1 Billion Valuation To $15 Million In A Year
As we warned earlier, it appears the tech-startup bubble is bursting - very quietly behind the scenes. Today we get another confirmation that this dot-com 2.0 explosion of speculative surreality has peaked. Once Silicon Valley darling, Fab - started out as a dating site for the gay community and then relaunched as a flash sale site for home decor - raised $150 million just over a year ago (at a $1 billion valuation), but as TechCrunch reports today, multiple sources have confirmed that Fab is in talks to sell to PCH International for $15 million in a half cash and half stock deal. Pets.com?
June 2013...
And today...
Multiple sources have confirmed that Fab is in talks to sell to PCH International for $15 million in a half cash and half stock deal.
...
Fab was once a Silicon Valley darling. The likely purchase price is a paltry one, compared to the $150 million it raised (at a $1 billion valuation) just over a year ago. Goldberg admitted the company was burning through $14 million a month before a massive round of layoffs in June.
...
Fab has seen some drastic changes in its 3 years of operation. It started out as a dating site for the gay community and then relaunched as a flash sale site for home decor. Fab announced just six months after the pivot that it had grown its membership to 2 million, with sales averaging $1.5 million a week.
A source close to the company tells us no one really works at Fab anymore. Although one could argue that technically most of what Fab was has been rolled into Goldberg’s new venture. He’s now shifted all focus to Hem and has moved to Berlin to manage everything there. Goldberg maintains his CEO title in both Fab and Hem at this time.
* * *
Here are the funding rounds...
And here are the buried investors...
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It's a homosexual dating site that turned into a furniture business. Do I have that right?
Yeah, I thought Ikea already was the market leader in that space.
The funds who bought this POS only lost their client's money. Some of these fund managers are not discerning and will buy anything as long as they're incentified well enough to sell it to the investors. In other words, a good fund manager will pitch anything to the boards and the investors for the right price.
Not sure how "fab" pulled this off but they clearly had a lot of fund managers by the balls, maybe literally. Yuck.
dupe
I see many dupes from that list of VC's.
Didn't JCP try the same thing only in reverse order?
Just the name FAB is worth a billion dollars.
(Said with Daffy Duck lisp)
Not just furniture, FABulous furniture. Think IKEA that makes "it" move.
pods
Startups are soooo gay!
I'm getting a flaming woody just thinking about it.
so instead of a " pump and dump" it's a "pump, pump, pump"
And, the CEO has left the country...
Dual citizenship comes in so handy for most criminals.
It started out as a dating site for the gay community and then relaunched as a flash sale site for home decor.
Gay dating AND home decor? Somebody pinch me!
They have wood.
Yoda says " They wood, have."
(??) It would be, "Wood, they have." C'mon. Get it right.
I'm sportin' wood here, and its on sale!
Corrected, I am....
... Thanx, got the syntax right now
Tech bubble 2.0 for the Millenials, who were watching "Dora the Explorer" and "Malcolm in the Middle" while Mom and Dad sunk their college fund into Pets.com and WorldCom stock. Pinch me too, because here it comes again.
Let the good times roll (while they last): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BDBzgHXf64
queer eye for the straight guy...
You just can't make this shit up. A billion dollars? I am in the wrong fucking business man.
Its cool, you are near a toptick when you start having those thoughts.
Snapchat!!
Uber!
never heard of ya, heres 20 bucks go clean yourself up.
Careful looking underneath those cushions !!!
does this have anything to do with that Fabreez guy from Goldman?
Oh no, what are they using inside that sock puppet mascot?
pods
Just went to Fab. First time ever. Unreal that some idiots are going to still pay $15 million !!
Well, if people are stupid enough to pay those kind of "sale" prices...
Your visit just helped their 'unique vistors/click' stats...now they're "worth" $15,000,010! Perhaps they should also sell fudge packs?
Bullish!
See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire...
[/money for nothing]
Running faggot, running free.
See the faggot, he fed a puppy.
Running faggot, running free....
[/Kids in the Hall]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-TtfMLGnok
gay dating web-site? ... sounds like a perfect acquisition target for AAPL ...
Cook has trouble dating in San Fran area? No!
Goldberg got his financing because of his club membership, not because the business model was real.
Now flee to Germany!
I am a Jelly Donut!
Listen Zero's.
It was a sound idea. The ultimate membership bait-and-switch.
But the bait and switch was pulled on the investors, Goldberg Style.
If you're as old as I am, you may be singing a jingle about "Lemon Freshened Borax" by now.
75% off on beard warmers too!
etoys
Snach chat?
don't be silly, that's on the HETERO dating site.
The more open homosexuality becomes "normal" and "mainstream", the less cache and allure such venues will have for their "target" audience.
Gotta female friend that thinks Cook's coming out was great. Reasoning: if it saves one kid from suicide.
So I get the email of a steroided up shemale who's tittypecs could give you a concussion & at the end of it said, I gave her your number.
I just don't get people anymore. Apparently it was not amusing.
The more open homosexuality becomes "normal" and "mainstream", the less cache and allure such venues will have for their "target" audience.
My business is marketing product to ecommerce sites - primarily flash sale sites like Fab. Yes, shit we don't need. I'm not defending the industry but this is old news. Fab died a year ago. All of these entities (Groupon, One Kings Lane, Living Social, etc.) are very new businesses all <10 yrs. old. Overall, they are all very popular and generate incredible sales considering they didn't exist a few years ago. That said, they are not yet making $$ and still trying to figure out the optimum model during rapid sales growth. There will be failures and consolidation while the industry attempts to find its footing and potential profitability. Some will survive and others will die. Kind of like Ferguson.
Just my two cents from someone in the industry.
"while the industry attempts to find its footing"
What industry?
How about 'segment'? It does exist. Call it dog shit if you want.
" find its footing"
Sounds like europe has better footing eh!
I mean, not everyone can be a tech maven or even keep up with the chatter - but anyone taken in by these assholes deserves to lose their shirt.
I mean - for fuck's sake... it's like The Onion met Seinfeld met Vidal Sassoon up in that muthafucka
You used to be a CEO? That's great.
Now go home and get your fuckin' shinebox!
It's either Gays or Negroes, always in the news whining about something,
I'm sick of all of these asshats
Pets.com?
You mean like the famous sock puppet with a hand up its ass?
this is like fishing with no bait, and catching fish with every cast.
a spokesperson from fab confirmed it's valuation at $1b, i didn't know that, i'd have put my lifes savings into it, good thing i never heard of fab.
there's got to be trillions in(taxable short-term capital gains), out there to be hoping fab turns out to be google.
i guess people can be fooled, if you get your news from msm, you might actually think the lgbt community is composed of 20% of americans, not the actual, 2%-3%, you might invest.
on investments like this do you have to prove to the irs that these capital-gain loses, and not just donations to friends?
The immense greed of Silicon Valley will never change. Each cycle they throw money at the next Pets.com. Fab is the new poster boy (a twink, in this case).
I bet they'll have an extensive collection of Bear Rugs for sale on Black Friday.
At least I got a good list of VC firms to peddle my shit to after the circus ends.
Prolly bare rugs too.
Let me guess...
They sell upside down barstools for group seating?
Leather chairs with vibrating attachments?
'Crisco friendly' polypropylene rugs?
I'm starting a new Twitter, but it's for pole smokers only. That should be good for a TEN billion dollar valuation!
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Smells like 2001 all over again.
Nortel, that Pet.com thing, and gawd knows how many others.
I thought I was a stock picker, a real wheeler-dealer, just letting my mutual funds go up.
Boy, did I get my ass handed to me in 2002.
I watch a fellow at work, 32 years old, same age as I was in the early 00's. He's gonna retire by 40 he tells me. uh-huh…
I noticed with great interest, during the great downturn in October, he was about one or two more days of losses away from cashing in his mutuals.
When the market suddenly ripped, I asked him why it happened? (I knew the Bullard statement's impact from reading ZH. He did not.)
"I don't care! It's just going higher!"
Prepare for impact. Buckle up.
My take away? All the schlubs still left in the market (aside from the algos and HFTs) are one 10-15% downturn away from getting out, if that.
I suspect a lot of people got out in October, too.
•?•
V-V
Uber !
"It started out as a dating site for the gay community"
How come sad or depressed communities don't get dating sites? Only the happy joyous ones?