iBelieve.com., a Christian lifestyle site, Friday announced that it will
suspend operations and shut down its Web site. The closing is attributed to
an inability to secure needed financing.
iBelieve.com launched in January 2000 as an integrated content, community
and commerce site serving the Christian market.
The shutdown comes after several months of efforts to secure additional
funding to keep the site up and running, according to Jef Fite, president.
“We met or exceeded all of our traffic metrics, experienced revenue
growth
every month since launch and realized our goal of becoming the leading
Christian Internet site,” Fite said. “However, like many other Internet
companies, we were not able to raise capital given the current market
conditions, and we are left without options.”
The company expects to lay off its 35-person staff within the next two
weeks.
iBelieve.com halted all e-commerce operations earlier today, but plans to
honor all orders previously completed on the site. Users will have access to
iBelieve.com’s customer care services
through an email link on the site for the next few weeks.
