- published: 15 Nov 2012
- views: 949
Rakuten.com is an e-commerce marketplace based in Aliso Viejo, California. Previously known as Buy.com, it was founded in 1997 by Scott Blum. In 2010, it was purchased by Japanese company Rakuten, and rebranded as Rakuten.com.
Buy.com originally sold only computers, at below cost, intending to bring in revenue through advertising and ancillary services such as sales of warranties and equipment leases, before expanding into numerous other categories, including software, books, videos and games. The company sold $125 million worth of goods and services in 1998, its first full year, beating Compaq's 1984 record for most first-year sales.
After raising $120 million from Japanese tech company SoftBank in 1998 and 1999, founder Scott Blum sold the remainder of his stake to SoftBank in 1999 shortly before Buy.com's $195 million initial public offering in early 2000. On February 8, 2000, Buy.com went public at $13 per share and rose to $37.50 per share that day, its peak price. Stock values dropped in the year following Buy.com's initial public offering, and it was delisted from the NASDAQ Stock Market for failing to maintain a stock price above $1 per share. In February 2001, the UK arm of buy.com was sold to John Lewis (UK department store), and the technology was repurposed to create a new transactional website for the John Lewis chain. In November 2001, Blum reacquired Buy.com for $23.6 million (about 17 cents per share), and took the company private.
Buy may refer to:
Com may refer to:
I heard you sing a rebel song,
sung it loud and all alone.
We can't afford the things you save,
we can't afford the warranty.
I see you walking in the glare
down the county road we share.
Our southern blood, my heresy,
damn that ol' confederacy.
It took a long time to
become the thing I am to you.
And you won't tear it apart
without a fight, without a heart.
I'm sorry for what you have learned,
when you feel the tables turn.
To run so hard in your race,
now you find who set the pace.
The landed aristocracy
exploiting all your enmity.
All your daddies fought in vain,
leave you with the mark of Cain.
It took a long time to
become the thing I am to you.
And you won't tear it apart
without a fight, without a heart.
It took a long time to
become you, become you.
The center holds, so they say.
It never held too well for me.
I won't stop short for common ground
that vilifies the trodden down.
The center held the bonded slave
for the sake of industry.
The center held the bloody hand
of the executioner man.
It took a long time to
become the thing I am to you.
And you won't tear it apart
without a fight, without a heart.
It took a long time to