Certain events in 1990s drew me into the Internet business. One that is most memorable to me is Pointcast. In fact, I collect paraphanelia from defunct .com companies, especially the high-profile ones that went bust. In this picture I’m holding an unopened copy of Pointcast and in my left hand, Pointcast I-Server, their intranet platform for corporate networks (Windows NT edition).
They had a desk top application that you would install which, they claimed, could have information pushed to it. It was widely popular. I had it and would want tech news streamed to me all day long. The year I was into it was 1995. Without Pointcast I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did as fast as I did. I followed all the latest press releases from AOL, Microsoft, Netspace and the rest.
Now the guy that started Pointcast probably wasn’t the best businessman in the world. He turned down Rupert Murdoch’s $450 million offer for it in 1997. Later on they planned a 250 million dollar IPO, only to withdraw that.
After a long serious of unfortunate events it ended up selling for only 7 million dollars.
More crazy mergers and aquisitions went by and it eventually was owned by AOL for a while before my client ended up with possession of the name and the trademark.
You can buy Pointcast.com and the trademark, right now for $38,000. With its 15 year old backlinks, I think it is a safe bet. Who knows, perhaps you could build a new application and send out a release that Pointcast is back! I am sure it would get picked up by all the major news outlets.
If you have an interest in the name, please contact me directly.
© 2010
Ouch!
I remember that I-Server box well. Someone sent us a promo copy, and it sat around in various offices and cubes until someone threw it away.
Rick,
Do I have a defunct .com for your collection! FaceMash.com, the pre-cursor to Facebook and apparently the first internet project Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook.com worked on at Harvard.
No trademark issues. $50,000.
The archive whois alone – seeing his name next yours will be worth it.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/3/15/crimsonpartieshookupexchangecom-when-a-few-harvard-undergraduates/
Pretty cool opportunity.
Thanks for sharing.
One could probably stir up a bit of a media buzz, like you said, if
it was announced that PointCast was back!
Aron
Rick what in God’s green earth is on that shelf on the right ? LOL
Pointcast was well before its time. I loved the old purple logo with the tower. It would make a good rebranding exercise for a new startup. Quick, someone tell Rupert its for sale for $38k!
Does Pointcast.com get any significant traffic?
@Adam, I was waiting to see who commented on that first. It’s a stuffed beaver. A friend of mine from Quebec City gave it to me.
@Eric, I have no stats but with those old backlinks, it just needs someone creative at the helm.
wow, having a domain with no idea of how much traffic it gets …..
I am sure, it’s not rocket science to know how much traffic it gets.
Great find Rick., lots of old school memories there. Pointcast was all the rage back in the day.
That’s what I thought . . . . that’s awesome !
Did that come from a failed dot com too?
Oh and I’m pretty good at spotting beaver.
It was how I learned the difference between push and pull technologies. And it was a great application to keep on technology news, as well as other interesting channels.
Every Canadian household has a stuffed beaver on the mantle – lol.
Creation Date: 2003-11-08
did it drop, and you re-registered it?
@Jay, it isn’t my name. I’m brokering it. Honestly, I’m not sure why it has that creation date.
Hmm, stuffed beaver. Now THATS old school.