Repo man moves in on ahoj.pl
By : Anna Kocinska
Internet company Ahoj (http://www.ahoj.pl)'s domain name has been repossessed and will be auctioned off in the next two weeks, according to Warsaw-based legal firm Drzewiecki, Tomaszek & Wspolnicy (DT&W).
The domain is currently owned by Internet Operator (IO), a subsidiary of 4Media the former tannery company Chemiskor which is trying to build a media holding.
"We want to recover at least part of the debt," said Igor Ostrowski, a partner at DT&W, which ordered the seizure of the ahoj.pl domain last Wednesday. Ahoj.pl's former owner, The Mother.Ship Poland (TSMP), owes DT&W zl. 500,000.
TSMP is registered as the owner of the ahoj.pl domain name at Naukowa i Akademicka Siec Komputerowa (NASK), the agency that registers Polish domains. "Money obtained from the sale of the domain at auction will go to DT&W, TSMP's creditor," Ostrowski said.
TMSP initially intended to invest zl. 80 million-zl. 100 million ($20 million-$25 million) in the portal within two or three years. But earlier this year, with the slump in the IT market, the company was unable to find an investor and fell into financial troubles. In March, 4Media bought TMSP and announced it would cover the company's debts.
"We had been waiting for six months and then we heard that settlement proceedings in court (between creditors and the debtor) were to be started, but as far as we know there's no settlement proceeding and all assets (of TSMP) are being sold to IO, so we're left with nothing," Ostrowski said.
According to Ostrowski, the auction of a repossessed Web domain will be a first for Poland. "There are Internet domain auctions on the Web but no such auctions (of domains) held by a repo man," he said. "In my opinion a domain is a basic asset of such a company (Internet firm) and it's worth a lot." Prices of domains available through auctions held, for instance, at www.gieldadomen.pl range from zl. 200 to zl. 10,000.
Meanwhile, according to 4Media's president Wojciech Krefft, IO purchased all rights to ahoj.pl from TMSP. "I'm not afraid of the auction because I think 4Media is right in this case," Krefft said. "Immediately after purchasing TSMP, IO submitted a motion to NASK to register ahoj.pl, but this kind of proceeding takes time so it's no wonder TSMP is still on NASK's register."
At the same time, according to Monika Sarnecka, 4Media's PR director, IO submitted a motion to settle in court. "And we're still waiting for the court's decision to start those proceedings," she said. "Besides, the list of creditors is still not closed." DT&W's Ostrowski said so far the debt amounts to a couple of million zlotys. In February, Chemiskor bought about zl. 2 million ($500,000) of Ahoj's debt owed to OMD media house. And in March, before purchasing TMSP, Chemiskor said it would pay zl. 8.05 million ($2 million) for TMSP by Sept. 30. (see the WBJ, March 19, 2001)
But creditors are getting impatient. "We (DT&W) helped Grady (Jeff Grady, the former CEO and cofounder of TMSP and former chairman of the board of New World Publishing, publisher of the WBJ) to actually create this portal," Ostrowski said. "TMSP's old board informed us that it's talking about selling the company's shares one of the conditions (for negotiations) was covering its debts. We have been waiting for two months for some move from the new managing board established by Chemiskor, in vain." 4Media's Sarnecka said that IO was in touch with all creditors. "We did talk to DT&W, so I can't understand their attitude," she said.
