Video sharing site Bolt has filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations.
The site has been on borrowed time since an acquisition by GoFish failed August 1. Bolt.com was sued by Universal Music in October 2006 and owes Universal $10 million from that suit; the funds from the GoFish acquisition were to have been used to settle the $10 million with Universal.
Bolt joins the TechCrunch Deadpool.
I don’t even remember hearing about this site before today…
I guess 37signals drove them to it too, eh?
Who gets the domain? Sweet domain…
Jono
Oddly enough I thought the same thing when I was writing the post. I can see that being a 6 figure sale in itself.
the low 6 figures for bolt.com probably
So it was the lawsuit that sent bolt to the deadpool or did lack of profit potential also play a role? Wasn’t bolt a video/image sharing site with a social network bolted onto it? I think i just made a really bad joke
These suits were supposed to be DMCA Safe Harbor tests, then filtering tests, then an upstart saving the day and then a story of a DRMed service provider turning content creation company. Now instead of all that there’s just this. Too bad.
@ Jeremy Steele
Bolt.com is actually old school – was a popular teen community, and a forerunner to today’s social networking sites, in the late ’90s (started in ‘96, i think). It saw quite a few changes post crash.
Of interest to no one in particular – I actually met my wife through the site.
The question is … is GoFish also in trouble?
@Cam:
Nice, someone else remembers this besides me. I used to use Bolt.com along time ago in highschool/college. It was definitely a forerunner of the more Facebook-type social networking site. Very clean interface from what I remember.
We’re old school Cam.
- Daniel
Ahh too bad, I liked this site.
Wow. They had approached me a few years ago about a site I had so when this came across the rss All I could think was thank goodness I didn’t do it. I wonder how this will effect the other sites they own. Assuming they will go bye bye.
@ Marques
No, it definitely wasn’t profit potential – it was the lawsuit. They’ve been around for over 10 years, and if you check the TC link in the article, it says they did $7m in revenue last year.
Aaron Cohen finally bites the dust. The most arrogant exec ever in NY media circles. Good riddance.
While Bolt undoubtedly had other issues, this is a sad day for the Internet development.
A functioning marketplace needs to develop for the online content economy – the current default to litigation is a deathnell for future growth.
What strongorbit said … this is not a sad day for internet development. This is survival of the fittest working as it should.
strongorbit, I 100% agree. I was unfortunate enough to get into a contract with this snake a few years ago, along with his equally sneaky VP, Lou Kerner. If either of these guys resurface from the goo, hang on to your wallet!
Aaron Cohen has demonstrated once again how being arrogant in consumer technology circles will lead to eventual business failure. He was trying to act like Ari Gold from Entourage but that stuff doesnt fly in the Valley.
i loved bolt. i think they should reinvent.