Cybuy Goes Out of Business
Cybuy LLC, a transaction-enabled e-mail service provider, has closed shop.The company posted a page on its Web site that reads: "As of 10 July 2001, Cybuy LLC closed for new business. Should you have any questions, please call 212-401-3845."
Voice-mail messages left at that number were not returned.
Cybuy spokesman Greg Wind said that the company's sole funding source, from the Royal Bank of Scotland, had been shut off. Cybuy, New York, was a unit of Nat West bank, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
"I don't think there are any clients left in the lurch," said Wind, who works for an outside public relations firm. "I'm not sure if they already have or when they'll stop servicing existing clients."
Calls to Cybuy executives went unanswered. Jean Brandolini, Cybuy's director of public relations, said that since she no longer worked for the company, she was not in a position to comment on the situation.
The company in June 2000 launched a service that enabled recipients to buy products promoted in e-mail messages without having to go to a Web site. By clicking on a link in the e-mail, a small window appeared on the user's desktop. The window was a Web browser whose only function was to collect purchase information and execute the order. When the deal was done, the window closed and the customer returned to the e-mail program.
