AOL, IDG Sop Up Industry Standard Assets

The Industry Standard fetched a combined price of $1.4 million from two buyers during an auction at a San Francisco bankruptcy court Monday.

Holding up their bidding paddles the longest were representatives from AOL property Time Inc. and Boston-based International Data Group (IDG), which owned the new economy publication until it got $30 million in VC money back in 1999.

The auction was announced last week after the company pulled the plug on the magazine last month.

When the dust settled, Time agreed to pony up $500,000 for the Standard’s paid subscriber list including the publication’s subscription liabilities to the tune of nearly $2.5 million.

IDG basically got the rest for $900,000 including the Web site, technology, intellectual property, trademarks, newsletters and publisher Standard Media’s conference division. IDG also acquired the magazine’s controlled-circulation subscriber list.

IDG did not say whether it planned on re-launching the Standard in print or on the Web, nor did it say what it would do with the conference division.