the story behind wine.com

Filed in archive Venture Capital on September 5, 2005

Matt Marshall at Siliconbeat covers the most recent news about ownership changes at troubled wine.com:

"My job is to be the CEO,'' Garrick told us.' I can't do that job if a single controlling shareholder is going to use their voting rights to further their own interests at the expense of other shareholders by unilaterally overruling decisions that the Board and the Management Team have made."

This is important because the board itself had made a decision to support management's plans, he and others told us. Garrick even signed off on the deal to be acquired. Valuable time was spent, in getting this done. The company ran out of options. But then Baker unilaterally changed its mind, and pulls the plug. Garrick additionally told us: "With this latest financing, Wine.com is essentially a subsidiary of Baker Capital."

Don't miss his earlier stories (scroll down a bit) about wine.com after the dotcom heyday. Great reads.

Thanks Jeff for the hint.