The dot-com bomb

While it may seem like years ago, the majority of the dot-com failures in credit union land occurred in 2001. * Portal company MembersResources.com went out of business. The firm prided itself on its original content as a driving force behind member usage. Though it had over 100 CUs using its solution, the revenue model was not producing enough cash. * eMoney Digest, publisher of an online financial newsletter specifically for credit union members also went belly up. The company gave away its product with the hopes of eventually selling advertising space. That never played out. * CUShopper, which went bankrupt, is probably one of the best known failures of 2001. The company’s leaders always maintained that it wasn’t a dot-com company because the majority of its sales came through direct mail pieces. However because of the extent of its Web presence among CUs (over 1,800 CUs offered at least the Web portion of CUShopper), it is listed here. CUShopper’s staff plummeted from 200 to 35 in a month. Critics say it expanded too quickly with staff and facilities. It moved into a 100,000 square foot facility, of which it was attempting to sublet 50,000 square feet. The company left a bad taste with many CUs as it gave very little notice about its pending demise. * Internet solutions firm Cavion also went bankrupt in 2001. Cavion had tremendous success in terms of number of clients, serving close to 300. The real story with Cavion came post-bankruptcy when it was seeking a company to bail the firm out. It was eventually acquired by Liberty (it’s now part of the Liberty Cavion unit), but there was a late push by EDS to make the acquisition. Cavion President/CEO Dave Selina eventually went to work for EDS after the deal with Liberty was complete. * Total1.com. Yet another portal provider, Total1.com’s sales pitch revolved around personalizing the portal pages to each CU member. It also launched an ISP program where CUs could sign up members for Net access. The company made some partnerships, but failed for lack of cash flow.