Menlo Park, Calif.-based Homes.com Inc., which laid off 40 percent of its
staff on March 14 to conserve cash, reportedly has said its eponymous LLC
unit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The Homes.com Web site was functional today,
however, and the company’s attorney was quoted as saying that the firm “is
definitely going to undergo some financial restructuring, but it is
completely operational.”
Homes.com, a provider of real estate marketing solutions and technology,
faces stiff competition from Homestore.com .
A report on VentureWire.com quoted Homes.com
attorney David Caplan as saying that Homes.com is in a legal dispute with the
landlord at its server center in Florida, “and rather than fight it out in
court, they decided to take the Chapter 11 route.”
The 150 job cuts at Homes.com earlier this month came in response to
disappointing operating results in January and February combined with a
difficult environment for raising capital. About a year ago, the company closed on a $38.5 million venture capital funding round led by Hummer Winblad
Venture Partners.
Tom Orsi, president and chief executive officer, said at the time of the job
cuts that “with the markets being what they are, we found it necessary to
reduce our operating expenses in order to continue as a viable business.”
He did not return a call by press time today.
The company said on March 14 that it intends to continue with the development
of new services and features to add to its existing product line, which
includes Homes.com AgentAdvantage and Homes.com BrokerAdvantage —
personalized Web sites for agents and brokers developed and hosted by
Homes.com — as well as PREP Software, the company’s desktop productivity
solution for agents and brokers.
