Accoona Who? Search Firm Files To Go Public
from the searching-for-investors dept
Hoping to capitalize on investor love for Google, search engine Accoona recently filed with the SEC to go public. However, John Battelle did some digging through the company's S-1 filing and finds that this one looks pretty fishy. The company has gotten no traction in its core search business, so in order to goose revenues, the company has bought out a number of money-losing e-commerce firms that have nothing to do with its main business. Other red flags stick out as well, such as the company's assertion that it's got interesting things going on in China, an attempt to associate itself with another hot area. Finally, the company will go public through a Google-like Dutch auction, in a blatant move to build up more hype. Obviously, the IPO window has widened in the past year, as more tech companies have been able to go public. But investors seemed to have kept their wits about them, and it seems highly unlikely that an also-ran search firm that few people have ever heard of will capture the public's imagination.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
First !
Oh, Yeah. This IPO is a scam ! Mike, right, more often then not !
;)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Price
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nice search
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
YOU MUST TRY IT !
I my search query was : "fuck"
Top results :
1. Google
www.google.com/
2. WordPress › Blog Tool and Weblog Platform
wordpress.org/
(third result actually is somewhat relevant)
3.NetNanny - Keeping your kids safe on the Internet
www.netnanny.com/
(WTF ?!!? Yale ?!)
4. Yale University
www.yale.edu/
6.EFF: Blue Ribbon Campaign
Here at EFF, we continue to fight for the right to free speech.
www.eff.org
7.DefendAmerica - U.S. Defense Dept. War on Terror:
www.defendamerica.mil/
What an Awesome search engine it is. Can't wait for the IPO.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Productive(?) Searches
Neato!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Who?
Oh, jesus... this blows chimp. =|
And their logo sucks!!! =D
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DUH !
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LOL
All this, and a year ago they were claiming to have had 120 million dollars in excess capital. Where'd it go? Why hasn't it been used to hire talent that would propel the business forward? The talent they did have, is gone now, due to complacency and boredom. It seems as thought it was engineered to be a money-pit. An exercise in capital-venture money laundering. One fruitless pursuit after another, and little to show for it other than blatant corpspeak.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LOL indeed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]