Xero Trying To Convince Potential Buyers It's Worth More Than Its Name

from the grain-of-salt dept

Xero Mobile has attracted a lot of attention, not because of its plan to offer free ad-supported mobile phone service, but because of its numerous ties to the infamous Gizmondo. Not only do the two companies share a business model (a spectacularly failed business model, in the case of Gizmondo), but Xero's also got some former Gizmondo executives as employees and investors, including ex-CEO Carl Freer, who of course is a good pal of Stefan Eriksson, another former Gizmondo exec whose crash of a million-dollar Ferrari Enzo in LA earlier this year was just part of bizarre tale involving allegations of embezzlement, theft, guns, and mysterious imaginary Germans named Dietrich. Unsurprisingly, the SEC put two and two together, and back in June, asked Xero to explain itself a little bit. Now, Xero has put out a press release (that reads like it's got little purpose other than to drive up the company's OTC stock) saying it's in talks to sell the company to an unnamed "third-party management company". Sounds about par for the course for a company with so many ties to Gizmondo: come up with a bad idea, get investment, then try to cash out before the flameout. Perhaps a little more interesting is that the same release notes that other Xero investors have bought out Carl Freer's stake in the company, an admission that he was involved with, or at least connected to, Xero in some way -- a point which the company wasn't exactly upfront in disclosing. We're really curious about who would want to buy this company, since it's got no revenues, no products in the market, and really, no prospects -- we've got some oceanfront property in Kansas we've been looking to sell.