Garden.com
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Garden.com was an Austin, Texas online gardening retailer launched in September 1995 and listed on Nasdaq (GDEN). It offered more than 20,000 products from over 60 suppliers, with over a million registered members, and raised $49.2 million in a September 1999 IPO. The company announced a phased shutdown of its e-tail operations in November 2000, selling off its consumer business assets and laying off its 153 employees.
02 / Garden.com FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Garden.com was a casualty of the dot-com crash. Despite over a million registered members, it never reached profitability: it posted a $9.9 million first-quarter loss on just $2.6 million in revenue, its stock collapsed from a 52-week high of $15 to under a dollar with trading halted, and with no path to profit the company announced a phased shutdown in November 2000.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Liquidation
Garden.com Inc. (NASDAQ:GDEN) 8-K/PR 15 Nov 2000: phased shut-down of retail ops and sale of consumer assets after failing to find funding/buyer as a full going concern; Forbes same day reported it going out of business. Board later adopted Plan of Liquidation (Dec 2000 SEC proxy materials).
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In September 1995 Garden.com was launched in Austin, Texas as an online gardening retailer.
- 02
In September 1999 the company went public on Nasdaq (GDEN), raising $49.2 million in its IPO.
- 03
Shares reached a 52-week high of $15 at the end of 1999, but trading was later halted at under a dollar.
- 04
The company posted a first-quarter loss of $9.9 million on $2.6 million in revenue.
- 05
In November 2000 Garden.com announced a phased shutdown of its e-tail operations, selling its consumer business assets and laying off its remaining 153 employees.
- 06
No loss amount beyond the reported quarterly losses is recorded.