uBid acquires Bidville, sites will continue to be operated separately

[regic]

uBid.com Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: UBHI), whose newly formed subsidiary DIBU Trading Corp., today announced the purchase of certain assets of the online auction company, Bidville, Inc. (OTC BB:BVLE.PK) which includes the company's customer file, brand name, URL and related online auction technologies.

DIBU Trading Corp. paid an undisclosed amount to acquire primary Bidville assets including the company's membership file estimated at approximately 900,000 customers and prospects, website technology platform which includes such innovative features as store fronts, fraud protection, private auctions and unique seller tools.

"This acquisition represents another great milestone in the history of our company," said Robert Tomlinson, Jr., CEO of uBid.com. "Bidville's consumer-to-consumer platform is complimentary to uBid.com's current business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketplace. It not only provides us with a new marketplace to expand our business but it also represents a great opportunity to cross-sell our current business to new customer prospects," he said.

Bidville.com will remain a separate entity within the uBid.com Holdings, Inc. group of companies. The transition of ownership of the new business will begin immediately.

uBid.com
uBid.com Holdings, Inc. operates an online auction marketplace located at www.uBid.com offering new, close-out, overstock and refurbished merchandise to both consumers and businesses through a trusted auction style and fixed price format. uBid.com provides consumers the opportunity to bid on or buy a wide variety of popular, brand name products at significant discounts. uBid.com's unique platform enables only certified suppliers and manufacturers a more efficient and economical channel for maximizing revenue of their surplus merchandise. Furthermore, uBid.com offers consumers a trusted buying environment, eliminating potential fraud by certifying all its merchants and processing 100% of all merchandise transactions between buyers and sellers. uBid.com Holdings, Inc. is publicly traded on the NASD OTC bulletin board (OTC BB: UBHI)

Bidville, Inc.
Bidville, Inc. (OTC BB:BVLE.PK), Bidville, Inc., a Nevada corporation, was founded in 1999 primarily as a sport card auction site but began expanding its merchandise offerings in late 2003 to compete as an on-line auction alternative to eBay. The company provides unique user features, such as Storefronts, Watch List, Image Gallery, and fixed price listing options. In 2001, Bidville merged with NoBidding.com, one of the first online fixed price marketplaces. In August 2003, Bidville was acquired by Royal Palm Capital Group. Bidville, Inc. has been a fully reporting public company since December, 2003. For further Company and product information, please visit the Bidville's website at http://www.bidville.com. Additional information, including current financial data, is available in current Securities and Exchange Commission filings under the symbol BVLE. The company is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida U.S.A.

Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements made in this release may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business of uBid.com Holdings, Inc. and the industries and markets in which uBid.com Holdings, Inc. operates. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. uBid.com Holdings, Inc. expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as otherwise specifically stated by uBid.com Holdings, Inc.

[cranky_hippie]

I know absolutely nothing about uBid. Is this likely to be helpful to Bidville from a sellers POV?

[bargainbloodhound]

[quote author=cranky_hippie link=topic=4527.msg18801#msg18801 date=1154017359]
I know absolutely nothing about uBid. Is this likely to be helpful to Bidville from a sellers POV?
[/quote]

from my Stores board post of 2 seconds ago:

uBid is publicly traded and profitable. In the first quarter they reported $20 milion in revenues and a profit of $2.9 million. They also raised $40 million when they did their IPO last December. uBid was founded in 1997.

uBid started out as an eBay-like consumer-to-consumer auction site and changed over to their present business-to-consumer format in 2003. The uBid site definitely has buyers and is virtually fraud free.

The deal could help to bring buyers to the Bidville site for the first time ever if uBid uses the same aggressive marketing on BidVille they use on the uBid site.  (note: agressive marketing here means heavy paid advertising, affiliate programs, promotional emails to existing customers, etc., i.e. they market the same way eBay does and not the way wagglepoop does).

This is definitely positive news for Bidville sellers.

[cranky_hippie]

Thanks, BBH!

[bargainbloodhound]

Bidville's old management, in keeping with their long tradition of being boinktards, apparently didn't feel this news was important enough to warrant an announcement to users today.

[amy]

approximately 900,000 customers

Wait until uBid discovers how many of those customers are actually active members. :blinkie: Saying Bidville has 900,000 members is like saying AuctionCities/Bidway/AuctionDiner/BidBay has 4.5 million members (which it does but they all left and listings have fallen from almost 5 million to under 2,000)...meaningless stats.

The acquisition by uBid could be a huge boost for Bidville sellers but I'm sure the ability to instantly add 900,000 names to uBid's mailing list was the main reason for the acquisition.

[regic]

Bidville's biggest critic over the years even likes this deal.  :blinkie:  He does make a good point that uBid is only acquiring the Bidville auction site,customer list, brand name, and technologies and is not acquiring the debt ridden Bidville Inc.

I'm looking quite favourably on the transaction.

First, as I understand it, Parker, Schuster, Orlando and Company will be shown the door.

Second, as you say, uBid is serious about running a business. As such they are certainly aware that NO TRAFFIC = NO SALES = NO FVFs.

Third, uBid did NOT acquire Bidville, Inc. They acquired certain assets of Bidville, namely the brandname, user database, URL, and related online auction technologies. That means that Bidville, Inc. (BVLE.PK) has been reduced to a "shell" company with next to nothing in the way of assets, significant current liabilities and a staggering shareholders' deficit, i.e., a substantial negative net worth. Not good for those Bidville sellers that took those chatboard gurus advice and went out and bought shares.

http://www.mad-cows.com/forums/showpost.php?p=378130&postcount=7

[sneakymagenta]

I was planning on appying to sell on uBid in August.  If they spam Bidville's members with uBid ads it'll help sales. 

[mandy]

As you may already know, the Bidville.com website was purchased by uBid.com Holdings, Inc. on
July 27th.  We are thrilled that Bidville has the opportunity to benefit from the experience
and resources that uBid has to offer.

It is our collective goal to expand and improve Bidville as quickly as possible.  Our plan is to
maintain Bidville as a separate entity from the uBid.com website.  We will systematically improve
Bidville's technology, website, marketing efforts and Customer Service.  Bidville will remain a
place for consumer to consumer and small business auctions and storefronts.

It is important to us that the transition of ownership and management occurs as smoothly as
possible without interrupting the daily operations of the website.  We will do our best to
communicate with the membership as much as possible.  Your continued (and improved) success is
vital to our success.

We welcome Bidville to the uBid family.  Thanks for continuing to grow with us.

Robert Tomlinson
CEO, uBid.com Holdings, Inc.

Ed Orlando, MD
Founder, Bidville.com

http://www.bidville.com

[dimucci]

Hi,

We are looking for a few members to help us develop a new feature. We are currently working on an application that will import auction and storefront items from `another` auction site. If you use `another` site and have auctions/store items there, please email us at bidville@optonline.net for details.

Thanks.

Support

http://www.bidville.com/community/messages/thread.asp?thread=979867&forum=150