World Online - Heard of Them?

[cheatindex]

Hi,

I recently lost a LARGE supporter for my gaming site, and hence lost close to 1/5 of my site traffic and revenue. At my age, the money was not that much needed, but it did hurt me somewhat.

Therefore, I begain going through my "Business Proposal" inbox, looking for suitable, hopefully equal replacements. I came across a letter from CNET, which I know, and another company called World Online which claims it is a large European ISP.

My concern is that, what they want is to make my cheats (I run a gaming site) into a database that when updated, would update theirs and my page. Hence, I'd be giving them content, without any recognition.

They in turn, would give me 50% of all ad revenue off of the pages. Now my question to you folks is, have you heard of this company? I personally haven't, but then, I'm not in touch with the world that well either.

I asked for site traffic, but being a network of sites, and having supposidly going IPO recently, he said he couldn't release the information that easily. The man is willing to host my site and all for free (I don't want to leave FQ though) but I need to know how big a fish I have caught. I don't want to get burnt playing with a startup company.

Any news out there about these guys? Their gaming portion of the network is located at:
http://www.gamerscentral.net/
and their main url appears to be:
http://www.worldonline.com/home/home_center.html

Please pardon my ignorace concerning such things.

Sincerely,
HZ

[Dan Kaplan]

I've never heard of them, so I can't help you there.

The man is willing to host my site and all for free

I would be very cautious about accepting such an offer, especially considering your fear of them using your site for their database content.  I have received similar offers to have my site hosted freely (some of them most likely honest) that appear to create a lot of grey area for ownership concerns, not to mention tech support...

Always best to trust your instinct, not your checkbook.

Dodgy

[jokesplus]

Yes I've heard of them, but don't know much about them.  

However a quick search at FT.com (UK equivalent of Wall Street Journal) turns up they are a Dutch company, who are now trading on the Amsterdam stock exchange.  The IPO was set for $11 billion and was seriously oversubscribed.  However stock price has halfed since mid-March when the stocks became tradeable.

Jarrod
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From blonde jokes to yo mamma
http://www.jokesplus.com
[This message has been edited by jokesplus (edited 04-15-00@02:49 am)]

[pier]

Being Dutch, I know EXACTLY what World Online is. What do you want to hear first, the good or the bad stuff ?!

-- Bad --
- CEO Nina Brink had to leave this week, after was found that she had cashed on the IPO, for around $6/share, while the share-value on the IPO was set on $20/share. Cashing as a CEO on a IPO is a NOT DONE.
- WorldOnline is now in troubles, because they wanted to take over some other ISP's, but with the recent drop of the shares, they don't have the money they hoped for.
- Several lawsuits are filed against WorldOnline, by European and American stock-holders, because they believe false information was given in the prospectus for the IPO.

Newspapers are filled these days with the disaster of the WorldOnline IPO. A whole lot of ppl have lost a whole lot of money... Heavy oversubscribed, with prices on the gray market of 130 euro/share, lots of ppl thought to cash in with their shares. When the IPO-initial price was set on 43 euro, nobody thought and just bought shares, thinking they would get rich. And exactly on that moment, the bubble bursted

A few quotes of the newspaper this morning:
 'Especially after the drammaticly IPO of World Online..'
 'Claim against World Online is bad for investors'
 'Nina Brinks goes on vacation, dressed with a fake wig'

-- Good
- They are one of the top-providers overhere
- They have enough money
- Being a Dutch firm, they are held by strict laws, so when a contract is signed, they can't break it (in normal ways)

Everybody is now waiting for the IPO of T-Online, a hugh German ISP. They initial share-value is set on around 23 euro, after the WorldOnline debacle. Whenever this goes wrong, all Internet-shares will drop even more. But if this goes right, WorldOnline will also come back.

Pier
[ Summarizing: They have enough money, are held by strict laws and have a huge pool of ustomers. However, with the drama of their IPO, you might want to look over the contract a few extra times, thus ensuring you you'll get the money. I personally would not be interested in shares on this moment, as it can work out either way ]

[tedloh]

Well done, Pier.  I was about to post similar information.  A major disaster, to say the least, which is a pity because they had some wonderful plans.

Cheatindex - keep your eyes peeled.  It's easy to get 50-50 ad revenue share deals, but you will soon find someone willing to buy you out entirely if your stuff is top-notch.

I went the other direction - let someone give me 50-50 ad time and got tremendous resources put at my disposal - even though I haven't made use of them yet.
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Ted (Chief Do-It-All)
Got2Bet.com - The Net's Winner's Circle
http://www.got2bet.com
ted@tygresystems.com

[cheatindex]

Woah. I never expected this type of response. From now on, I'm bringing all major business decisions to FQ before I take action, my family made it clear they don't care long ago .

Dan, I fully understand why you would be concerned. The truth is, if I were to sign a contract, I would make sure that the content still remains mine. The reason for the free hosting was simply because sharing a database is THAT much easier when you are on the same server, and since they would be writing the database application, it would only be right for them to host it. I would clearly miss FQ's support and uptime, but I'm hoping that the fact that they are a large ISP will mean they have the means to have a constant uptime record for at least their OWN site servers. Also, I've never had a dedicated server so it would be kinda nice. I would ensure though, that the content is still mine and that I have full rights to partner with other sites such as CNET.

jokesplus, thank you for your research. At 11 billion, they clearly were faking it. I think this is a good omen to keep cautious, thank you for your time.

pier, I am ever grateful. My main concern is that they were not a start-up company, and you have ended those fears. Unfortunetly, now I fear that they might go under, since I don't know how severe the IPO damages are. I do know now, that I will not accept any stock options that are given to me to "sweeten" the deal. Thank you for your ever-valuable info.

tedloh, in all aspects, I don't want my site bought out. I spend nearly two hours every night before going to bed (if I have the time) updating the site and I fear that those hours would be allocated to TV usage if I sell the site. Also, this site has been much to fun a ride to simply sell the ticket. I have gotten offers, but my answer is always no.

When I said 50/50, I made it clear to them that the content would remain mine under ALL circumstances. I am more interested in pulling up my revenue after the sudden drop than anything else. I am sure they will give me some sort of recognition on their page.

I only hope that their sites do receive traffic. Simply because they are a large ISP, doesn't mean they have lots of traffic I don't think. I honestly don't know how much they promote their site network, and the man I'm dealing with can't tell me at this time.

This will clearly take some time. He made it clear in this email:

"Okay, I'm going to put this into my list of projects to do, I'll keep you informed but it may be sometime before you hear from me again. We're getting new servers for the channel very soon and that will be a lot of work to get it running. ;-) After that, I can start fiddling around with a database.

--rgio"

Anyways, I thank you all for your time spent researching for me.

[Craig Antill]

I've never visited their site but, if it's any help, they are advertising in a big way, here in the UK...
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10 Tenths Motorsport
Boring worky type site...!

[Tatu]

'Nina Brinks goes on vacation, dressed with a fake wig'

I love European newspapers...

I love the headlines. "Famous Singer Screams I'm Not a Diva", "Americans Watch Who Wants to Marry a MultiMillionaire?" among others.

-Tatu