Traded as OTC Pink: FNDM Website fund.com Founded 2007 | Key people Jason Galanis Headquarters United States of America | |
Stock price FNDM (OTCMKTS) US$ 1.30 +0.05 (+4.42%)17 Mar, 4:00 PM GMT-4 - Disclaimer Subsidiaries AdvisorShares, Eastern Services Group Inc., Whyte Lyon Socratic, Inc., Fund.com Managed Products Inc | ||
Fund.com Inc. is a US-based financial services information publishing company that focused on the fund management industry. Its aims were to provide a destination website for investments, including mutual funds, hedge funds, money market funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), closed-end funds, index funds, commodity funds and other types of pooled investment vehicles.
Contents
- History
- Domain name purchase
- AdvisorShares acquisition
- Vensure Employer Services attempted acquisition
- Whyte Lyon Socratic acquisition
- Decline
- References
The company saw a significant decline in its share price after a soured business deal in late 2009 after which it has only traded in the “pink sheets”. Some of its senior executives were connected to Westmoore Capital from which Fund.com raised $1.5 million in 2008. Westmoore Capital was closed down by the SEC for running a $53 million Ponzi scheme.
History
The company was formed through a reverse takeover in January 2008 of Eastern Services Group, a state and local tax advisor for Nevada casinos. After the merger the name was changed to Fund.com
Domain name purchase
In March 2008, Clek Media announced that it had brokered the sale of the domain name “Fund.com” for nearly $10 million in an all-cash transaction, to the company Fund.com Inc. Although never confirmed by the company itself, the purchase price would have been the highest recorded price paid for a web site domain up to that point, followed by Porn.com ($9.5 million) Business.com ($7.5 million) and Diamond.com ($7.5 million). However, some industry insiders have questioned the validity of the amount reported.
AdvisorShares acquisition
In 2008 the company purchased a 60% stake in AdvisorShares for an initial payment of $275,000, on October 31, 2008. Noah Hamman who founded AdvisorShares was paid a base salary of $240,000 per year by Fund.com after the acquisition.
Vensure Employer Services attempted acquisition
On November 4, 2009, Fund.com announced its purchase of an equity interest in Mesa, AZ.-based Vensure Employer Services, Inc., a professional employer organization that provides benefits and payroll administration, health and workers' compensation insurance programs, employee training and development services, and retirement benefits plans, such as 401k's, for small and medium businesses. The equity is represented by $21.9 million of participating preferred stock of Vensure.
Fund.com was unable to meet the contractual obligations of the purchase and the transaction was subsequently reversed.
Whyte Lyon Socratic acquisition
In November 2009, the company also announced that it had purchased 100% of the capital stock of Whyte Lyon Socratic, Inc., a developer of online education programs for investors, debtors and professionals. As part of that transaction, Whyte Lyon's president Joseph J. Bianco was named chairman of the board of Fund.com.
Whyte Lyon Socratic specialized in long-distance learning and assisting online students in developing the necessary skills to understand financial transactions and financial markets; develop money management skills to help them manage their income and wealth; and reach particular goals, including homeownership, debt reconciliation, and improved credit scores.
Decline
In September 2011 an unusually large 1 for 120 reverse split of Fund.com shares failed to stop the share price slide. Fund.com lost 99% of its value that year giving a market value of around $8.4 million