Amp’d Mobile’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware has a wealth of info on the company’s creditors, and a list of shareholders of the company (we broke the story first here). According to the court documents, Amp’d owes about $33 million to its infrastructure/network provider Verizon Wireless, followed by its handset provider Motorola — $16 million; Vivendi about $10 million, BestBuy about $8 million; MTV Networks about $1.8 million; and others. In total, the total debt is more than $100 million. Amp’d says its assets total less than $100 million.
As for the shareholders, CEO-founder Peter Adderton (through his trust) holds the largest share of common stock, just above 5 percent. RedPoint Ventures holds around 3 percent plus more acrued through various equity rounds. Other shareholders in five subsequent rounds are also listed … in addition to VCs Redpoint, Highland Capital Parters, Columbia Capital, these include creditors MTV Networks, Qualcomm, Vivendi Universal, Best Buy and many others.
We have made a portion of the filing available as PDF here…creditor list starts from page 7 of the PDF.
The Amp'd story – raising so much venture capital and then filing for bankruptcy – protection is unbelieveable. How did they ever think the concept was going to fly, and how were they able to convince so many investors to come on board?
Tsk, tsk, tsk…those L.A. pretty boys. Can't run a company to save their lives but they do know how to bring in the money, don't they. The good thing about our superficial society is that all you have to be is good-lookin' to separate investors from their money. Well done Peter!
it would be interesting to find out how much due diligence all those investors actually did on the company and its business model etc before they invested as opposed to getting caught up in the hype of hollywood parties and free tickets to the motocross.
I am really shocked, but had a gut feeling that this was happening not to long ago, as an employee I knew something was sketchy with the way things where going on. They made up excuses of why certain things, where the way they where, like being low on phones accross the u.s, and not paying employees on time. Shame on Peter Adertton, for knowing, and allowing this to happen. good job making sure all of your friends, where debtors, as well, especially since you hold the most stock. here ya go, lie on reports, get investors, keep the money, owe debtors, never pay debtors, what you owe. Good job, thanks for showing the 18 to 35 how to do business. They really believed in this up company, as one of the front faces for you, you really make me look bad.
James, couldn't have said it better myself. I am willing to bet that very little diligence was done on this by the Vcs. They all probably got caught up in the fancy MTV parties, hanging out with rappers that Amp'd worked with, etc etc.
I'm betting that there will be lawsuits coming and some of the VCs will have to answer some serious questions around oversight, audit committee activities etc. Failures like this dont happen overnight. It took many months of terrible accounting and controls to get to where they are.
I bet some VC careers will be over as a result of this one as well.
Will this deal become the poster child of of the current "boom"? Much like eToys or Pets.com were 6 years ago? I think some of the same investors are involved in this deal as some of those past failures too…..
"They really believed in this up company, as one of the front faces for you, you really make me look bad."
Tell us what you look like so we know how bad you really look. Also, you're so busted for posting! 2 extra shifts in collections as punishment!
Someone must have one hell of a golden parachute attached to a huge boat filled with a mother load of cash waiting on the coast near Newport Beach. I have seen Helio spending on advertising, but none from Amp'd. If you want to hire an executive or executive team where real due dilligence is performed, http://www.caswellsmith.com
If you ever dealt wih their customer service department, you would be able to see why they can't make any money. I called to resolve an issue- a billing mistake of more than $500-and was told to call back in two to three weeks to give them time to look into the matter. The lady I spoke to was very helpful-but she could not restore my service, even though it was their mistake. So here I am with a phone I can't use and getting billed on my charge card for service I don't have. I'm sure there are plenty of others who have the same complaint-actually it is a good way to raise capital-just rip off your customers!
Unknown,
Perhaps you should consider the proper usage of "where" & "were" prior to composing such a passionate posting. This makes you appear very uneducated and devalues anything you say in your post.
Yeah, I too paid the bills on time and recieved a letter from amp'd stating that I haven't paid on time. I called several times concerning this matter and the problem was no resolved. I've gotten tired of this company and changed providers. If anyone has the same problems as I do please let me know. There could be a "Class Action Suit" against this company. I don't want it to affect my credit.