Garden.com To Close Retail Business

DALLAS (AP) — Garden.com Inc., an online seller of horticultural products, is closing its retail business and selling its assets. <br><br>The Austin-based company said Wednesday it will begin laying

Friday, November 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6


DALLAS (AP) — Garden.com Inc., an online seller of horticultural products, is closing its retail business and selling its assets.

The Austin-based company said Wednesday it will begin laying off workers from its e-commerce division — it had about 150 left after a previous round of layoffs — and will sell its inventory of gardening tools, its Web addresses and content.

The company is evaluating what to do with a unit formed to market the company's software.

The closing of Garden.com follows other recent failures in e-commerce, including Pets.com, Furniture.com and MotherNature.com.

There were sunny days for Garden.com, which was founded in 1995.

The company raised $49.2 million with an initial public offering in September 1999 and chief executive Cliff Sharples was a featured guest when CNBC television's ``Power Lunch'' show came to Austin in January. Analysts said the company had the advantage of being the first in the online gardening sector.

But those roots turned out too shallow for the company to grow.

Garden.com fell short of earnings targets in the first quarter and later hired the Robertson Stephens investment bank to look for investors or a buyer.

The company said it found several ``interesting prospects,'' but nobody wanted to fund or buy the company. It laid off about 40 percent of its work force in September.

Revenue in the year ended June 30 grew 187 percent to $15.5 million, but the company lost $38.7 million.

In a statement Wednesday, Sharples said the company had no alternative to shutting down. Still, he said, ``We believe that Garden.com was instrumental in helping to create the online gardening market.''

In trading Wednesday, Garden.com shares fell 16 cents to 9 cents on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
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