X10 Files For Bankruptcy - Guess Those Pop Unders Didn't Work So Well
from the spy-on-this dept
Back before the days of pop-up ads, X10 was actually considered a pretty cool company. They offered simple-to-use and inexpensive home automation offerings. I used to know someone who had his whole house set up with X10 stuff, so he could control all of his lights via a single remote control (though, it had an annoying delay). Then came the pop up ads. X10, more than anyone else, really went crazy with those pop up ads focused on their spy cameras, and lost just about all the goodwill they had built up before. Apparently, those pop up ads haven't done them much good, because the company just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Of course, this might have something to do with the legal loss we spoke about yesterday, where they're being told to pay $4.3 million to the set of young brothers who created the pop up ad campaign. The filing reveals that the company has less than $10 million in assets, but debts ranging between $10 million and $50 million. Quite a lot of their debt is owed to various advertising companies or sites that run their ads. So, not only did X10 bring about the second most annoying internet advertising revolution (after spam), it looks like they didn't even make any money doing so.
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X10 Goes Dim
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Re: X10 Goes Dim
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not that great a product anyway
Personally, I think the products are too expensive for the quality - you have to have really good electrical wiring for the kits to work properly, otherwise, you turn off the lounge light and the kitchen light goes on!
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Re: not that great a product anyway
The only one that's been a problem is the one that runs the fan. Sometimes you have to turn it off twice to get it to work.
I've been using X-10 stuff since back in the day of the Commodore 64 (1985?) and still use many of those same modules.
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Re: not that great a product anyway
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No Subject Given
Having said all of that... most people know X10 via their annoying pop-under ads and even more annoying "order before midnight" promotion laden site. I for one am GLAD to seem them go... because they've sat on the basic patents for control over the powerline for 30+ years with no improvements or innovations. I sincerly hope their control of the patents goes to someone who will move forward! 34 baud, indeed!
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