Kmart Corp. and SOFTBANK Venture Capital Wednesday formally launched BlueLight.com, an e-commerce company with free Net access and the opportunity for Kmart
consumers to purchase products and services online.
Kmart will be the majority shareholder, with an approximate 60 percent
ownership of BlueLight.com, while top venture capital firm SOFTBANK Venture
Capital, will have a $62.5 million stake.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
(MSO),
one of Kmart’s retail partners, will make an unspecified strategic
investment in BlueLight.com as well.
Through relationships with SOFTBANK Corp., Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), Spinway.com and Cisco Systems (CSCO), BlueLight.com will immediately offer consumers free Internet access.
Content and other features will also be available through a partnership with Yahoo!.
BlueLight.com also will feature products and special promotions from Kmart
on an introductory basis, with the assortment and Web store functionality
expanding throughout next year.
A team of experienced Internet retail executives will head
BlueLight.com. Mark H. Goldstein, who previously founded Impulse! Buy
Network, NetAngels and Reality Online, has been named BlueLight.com’s
president and chief executive officer. The BlueLight.com executive team
also will include: Brian Sugar, who will be the chief Web officer, formerly
in charge of all e-commerce activities at J.Crew, and Fran Maier, who will
be the vice president of marketing, joining BlueLight.com from Women.com
where she was senior vice pesident of marketing.
“We are excited by the prospects of expanding our Internet presence.
BlueLight.com will enable us to reach more consumers everywhere, providing
them with almost instant access to our ever-growing selection of extremely
high quality, beautifully designed goods and products for home, garden and
kitchen at ‘everyday prices,'” said Martha Stewart, chairman and chief executive officer of
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.
