CyberRebate
Cyberrebate.com, Inc. was an online retailer that promised 100% rebates on electronics and other retail items.[1][2] The company sold items for as much as 10 times above list price and relied on the assumption that 5% of its customers would neglect to apply for their rebate.[3] It was founded in May 1998 and went bankrupt in May 2001. It is a commonly cited example of a dot-com bubble firm. CyberRebate's website is not available on the Wayback Machine, due to robots.txt.
History
Joel Granik, Joseph Lichter and Athan Vadiakas started the website on 16 May 1998. In January 2001 it was the number three–ranked online retailer in the United States and had 7.7 million web users per month.[2][3] The company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 16 May 2001, citing $83.3 million in liabilities against $24.5 million in assets.[3] Approximately $80 million was due directly to customers in unpaid rebates.[2]
In April 2005, some creditors were awarded $0.08802 per dollar of allowed claims.[4] A second, final disbursement was made to creditors in August 2006 for $0.0006276 per dollar of allowed claims.[5]
References
- ^ "Cyberrebate.com, Inc". New York Department of State Division of Corporations Entity Information. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ a b c Edmonston, Peter (18 May 2001). "Free-With-Rebate Costs Web Buyers Some Big Bucks". The Wall Street Journal. p. B.1.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ a b c Livingston, Brian (18 May 2001). "Perspective: Millions vaporized in CyberRebate collapse". CNET News. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ "Unknown". Archived from the original on October 13, 2002. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
Distributions to creditors (including rebate claimants) are being mailed beginning April 22, 2005. Creditors will receive $0.08802 per dollar of allowed claims, which means, that for each one hundred dollars of allowed claims, you will receive $8.80.
- ^ "Unknown". Archived from the original on October 23, 2001. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
Creditors will receive $.0006276 per dollar of allowed claims, which means, that for each ten thousand dollars of allowed claims, you will receive $6.28.