Boo finds a buyer but won't keep trading

Boo.com has found a buyer for its high-profile name, but new US owner Fashionmall.com will use the brand to launch a European fashion portal rather than resurrect the e-store.

The US portal, which carries brands such as Gap and Coach, declined to reveal how much it paid for Boo's domain name, trademarks and content. However, it said the sum is significantly more than the £250,000 Bright Station shelled out last week for the small proportion of proprietary software included in the site's back-office technology.

The amount paid is likely to be several million dollars. While Bright Station had no real competitors in its bid for Boo's technology, Fashionmall had to beat off one other unnamed rival before agreeing a final sale - a process Boo's liquidators described as "exhaustive".

The funds generated by the sale are understood to cover Boo's main creditor, the costs of liquidation, and a proportion of the monies owed to staff and the UK government in tax. Some 250 staff had not been paid for more than a month.

Boo has sold its last pair of trainers. The site will be used to resurrect Boo's online magazine, Boom, and its virtual shopping assistant, Miss Boo. Fashionmall's look and feel is functional without the glitzy graphics with which Boo attempted to woo its visitors.

The new Boo site will redirect clothes shoppers to other online stores and catalogues, earning revenue through sponsorship, advertising and by charging other dotcoms that generate business through the site.

Ben Marasin, chief executive officer of Fashionmall, said: "The old Boo would have sold you a pair of Nike trainers from its warehouses. Now the shopper will go straight to Nike."

Most of Boo's 27 remaining staff will not be offered positions with the US group, although some agreed to join Bright Station earlier this week.

"Boo's business model failed," said Marasin. "But Boo the brand was succeeding and is probably one of the top 10 most recognised brands on the internet."

Marasin's claims, however, are challenged by research firm e-Mori, which carried out a brand recognition survey of 26 new media brands this April.

"We disagree with Marsin's statements about the strength of Boo's brand," Lee McEwan, a senior researcher at e-Mori, told vnunet.com.

"According to our research, less than one in seven (13 per cent) of web users have heard of Boo, compared with a 90 per cent for the most recognised brand, Yahoo," he added.

"Boo's troubles may have raised its profile among readers of the business press, but I don't believe it has raised it significantly among its core target audience, 18 to 35-year-old clothes buyers."