A company which had sold sportswear over the Internet was wound up by the High Court yesterday after being described as "hopelessly insolvent", with accumulated debts of almost £20 million and assets of about £700,000.
Boo.com Ireland Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyannis Unlimited, which in turn is owned by Boo-com NV, the ultimate parent in the Boo group, and Boo.com group Ltd (the English company). The Irish and English companies were the major trading entities in the overall Boo.com group In practice, the English company, which had 250 employees, was running the group's operations.
The cancellation of the proposed flotation of the Boo.com group on the London Stock Exchange earlier this year ultimately led to the collapse of the company in which shareholders had invested some £100 million. It was the first major failure of an Internet company.
In the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice Quirke was told shareholders were likely to suffer substantial losses because of the collapse of Boo.com Ireland Ltd.
The judge granted an order for the winding up of the company, with registered offices at Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Street, Dublin, and appointed Dublin accountant Mr Ray Jackson as liquidator.
At the time of the presentation of the petition last month, it had been stated the company had liabilities of £19.7 million and assets totalling £7.5 million.
Last month, the court was told that a US company had agreed to buy for $550,000 certain assets of Boo.com, including the domain name and any rights relating to the Boo brand. Shareholders had invested £100 million in its launch.
