Boo.com
Boo.com was a short-lived British eCommerce business, founded in 1998 by Swedes Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin, who were regarded as sophisticated Internet entrepreneurs in Europe by the investors because they had created an online bookstore named Bokus.com, the third largest book e-retailer (in 1997), before founding boo.com.
| Company type | Dutch NV (Disestablished in 2000) |
|---|---|
| Industry | retail |
| Founded | 17 March 1999 |
| Defunct | 2000 |
| Headquarters | London, England |
Key people | Ernst Malmsten Kajsa Leander Patrik Hedelin |
| Products | clothing, cosmetics |
| Website | Boo.com (Domain now owned by Hostelworld) |
After several highly publicized delays, Boo.com launched in the autumn of 1999 selling branded fashion apparel over the Internet. The company spent $135 million of venture capital in just 18 months, and it was placed into receivership on 18 May 2000 and liquidated.
In June 2008, CNET hailed Boo.com as one of the greatest dot-com busts in history.
Ernst Malmsten wrote about the experience in a book called Boo Hoo: A dot.com Story from Concept to Catastrophe, published in 2001.