**Garden.com Sells Assets to Walmart.com, Burpee Holding Co.
Online gardening products retailer Garden.com Inc. has sold its content assets to Walmart.com and its brand assets to Burpee Holding Co. for a combined $4.4 million, the Garden.com said Wednesday.Burpee Holding Co. is the parent company of W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Warminster, PA, a gardening company.
Walmart.com, the online arm of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., bought all of Garden.com's major content assets, including editorial, interactive and film content.
Walmart.com plans to integrate parts of the content into Wal-Mart's garden centers and into Walmart.com on a limited basis this year, with fuller integration planned for next year.
Burpee bought Garden.com's brand assets, including the company's URL, www.garden.com, and certain assets relating to customer information.
Garden.com, Austin, TX, said the transfer of customer and member information is subject to providing prior notice and giving individuals the right to their information.
Garden.com said it still plans to evaluate bids and other strategic alternatives for its other assets, including its hardware, equipment and Green Cheetah -- its 80-percent owned subsidiary, which is developing database performance software.
Garden.com, an online seller of horticultural products, was founded in 1995. Garden.com said Nov. 15 that it would close its online doors and sell its consumer business assets after it failed to secure financing or find a buyer.
Garden.com said it received $4.425 million for these assets, of which about $800,000 was deposited in escrow and is subject to a possible reduction based on a post-closing adjustment, and $500,000 of which had been deposited with the company previously.
