Sliding its business into the financial arena, online department store
CyberShop.com Inc. closed its retail doors Thursday in order to form an
Internet incubator to fund start-up Internet companies.
CyberShop (CYSP)
ceased operations of its e-tailing sites CyberShop.com and electronics.net,
and will sell the retail assets of these operations to raise capital for
Grove Street Ventures Inc.
Grove Street, set to launch in the near future as a public company, will
offer management resources, equipment, facilities and financial resources,
including initial seed capital for newly-formed Internet firms. Its aim is
to identify and invest in attractive early stage Internet companies and
accelerate their development and product launches.
“After exploring a number of strategic alternatives,
we saw the incredible opportunity in our new Internet incubator strategy and
came to the conclusion that it is in the best interest of our
shareholders to focus our business on this sector while retaining only our
most profitable existing operations,” said Jeffrey Tauber, chairman and
chief executive officer of CyberShop.
“Our goal for Grove Street Ventures is to use our experience, along with our
financial
capital and management resources, to ensure the success of our
network of companies.”
The firm said that it will retain Tools for Living, the direct marketing
division of CyberShop, as a separate division within the
company.