Bigfoot International, Inc. was a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

based

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

, which developed

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

communications,

marketing automation Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitiv ...

and customer interaction software products during the

dot-com era The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

. Founded in 1997 by Lenny Barshack and James Hoffman, it grew out of Bigfoot.com, a free

e-mail provider A mailbox provider, mail service provider or, somewhat improperly, email service provider is a provider of email hosting. It implements email servers to send, receive, accept, and store email for other organizations or end users, on their behalf. ...

and Web directory. It eventually developed into a group of three

subsidiaries A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a sa ...

: Bigfoot.com, Bigfoot Interactive, and Neoplanet, Inc. The company ended in 2000.

History

Bigfoot morphed into a holding company in 1997, when

Acxiom Corporation LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (commonly LiveRamp), is a San Francisco, California-based SaaS company that offers a data connectivity platform whose services include data onboarding, the transfer of offline data online for marketing purposes. The comp ...

decided to make about $11 million

investment Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...

to develop E-Mail Campaign Management (ECM) service after a successful implementation of Acxiom Preferred Mail joint service. New York City based Bigfoot Interactive was formed to develop ECM solutions. In 1999 Bigfoot International

spun out ''Spun Out'' is a Canadian television sitcom created by Jeff Biederman, Brent Piaskoski and Brian K. Roberts for CTV. It premiered on March 6, 2014 and ended on October 3, 2015, with a total of 26 episodes over the course of 2 seasons. Premise T ...

its Neoplanet division into Neoplanet, Inc., headquartered in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. Since then, the company became more of a Web incubator type. Following the

dot-com collapse The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...

, the company was divided and sold off.

Bigfoot.com

Bigfoot.com started out in 1995 when a former

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dire ...

Lenny Barshack and international PC

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

er Jim Hoffman partnered to create an email directory. They secured about $3 million in the first and second rounds of investment from various investors including

Sam Zell Samuel Zell (born Shmuel Zielonka, September 28, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. A former lawyer, Zell is the founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm, founded in 1968. He has ...

, Herb Allen and

Peter Angelos Peter G. Angelos (born July 4, 1929) is an American trial lawyer and baseball executive from Baltimore, Maryland. Angelos is the majority owner of the Baltimore Orioles, a team in the American League of Major League Baseball. Early life and educ ...

. There was just one competitor on the market at that time, sled.com, later purchased by

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

. Bigfoot, which then operated as Bigfoot Partners L.P., continued to develop the service by adding

white pages A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that ...

directory and free email service. They soon discovered that email addresses quickly became outdated as users changed their

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

s and jobs. In June 1996 they launched

ad-supported Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...

"Bigfoot for life", an email forwarding service, which redirected all emails to user`s current email. In 1997 Bigfoot added several paid extra features like

email archiving Email archiving is the act of preserving and making searchable all email to/from an individual. Email archiving solutions capture email content either directly from the email application itself or during transport. The messages are typically then ...

, spam filtering, an auto-reminder that alerts the user on important dates, an auto-responder that replies to mail when the user is inactive and Bigfoot Consolidator, which forwarded emails from multiple accounts into a single mailbox. In January 1998, Bigfoot PermaWeb, a free URL redirection service was added. Bigfoot.com partnered with BellSouth, Hotmail, McAfee and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

among others. In 1999, Bigfoot International started talks to sell Bigfoot.com. In 2000, it was bought by internet entrepreneur Michael Gleissner. Gleissner has grown the organization into a large international company focused on

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

primarily in Asia,

Bigfoot Entertainment Bigfoot Entertainment is the American parent company of Bigfoot Films, Bigfoot Productions, Bigfoot Production Services, Bigfoot Partners, the International Academy of Film and Television, New Cebu Films and Fashion One Network. The Bigfoot Grou ...

. Bigfoot email and Bigfoot directories were served by Bigfoot Communications until end of service for "Bigfoot for life" in 2016.

Bigfoot Interactive

Email direct marketing service Bigfoot Interactive concentrated on ROI-focused email communications technology and permission-based opt-in mailings. Its clients included Eddie Bauer, IBM,

3Com 3Com Corporation was an American digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe ex ...

, The Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive and

Omaha Steaks Omaha Steaks International, Inc., known as Omaha Steaks, is a food retailer. The company is named after the city it was founded in, and its headquarters location, Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha Steaks manufactures, markets, and distributes a variety of s ...

among others. In 2000, Bigfoot Interactive entered Japanese market with Bigfoot Japan Corp. funded by

Nissho Iwai is a ''sogo shosha'' (general trading company) based in Tokyo, Japan. It is engaged in a wide range of businesses globally, including buying, selling, importing, and exporting goods, manufacturing and selling products, providing services, and p ...

subsidiary GLQ Entrepia. In 2001, Bigfoot Interactive

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

with Expression Engines, e-mail services and technology provider. A new holding company operated in New York as Bigfoot Interactive with Fred Wilson serving as

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the board,

Al DiGuido Alexander DiGuido (born June 27, 1956) is an innovator in the direct response industry and in e-mail marketing methods. As of December, 2011, he is the former CEO of direct marketing company Zeta Interactive. Prior to his position with Zeta, DiGui ...

as CEO and Jim Hoffman as CSO. In 2005, Bigfoot Interactive was acquired by

Epsilon Epsilon (, ; uppercase , lowercase or lunate ; el, έψιλον) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a mid front unrounded vowel or . In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was der ...

, an Alliance Data subsidiary, for a reported $120 million.

Neoplanet, Inc.

Bigfoot International launched its portal-like browser Neoplanet in 1997. In January 1999, company decided to

spin out Spinout or Spin Out may refer to: *Corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, a type of corporate action where a company turns a portion of itself into a separate business *Spinout (driving), failure when braking Entertainment * ''Spinout (fil ...

its Neoplanet division. Neoplanet, Inc. started out in

with $18 million in venture capital from Network Associates Venture Fund,

Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The compa ...

and Venture Frogs. One of NeoPlanet’s main focus was providing its customizable browser to the third parties pioneering the

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

ed browsers

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

, Interscope/Geffen/A&M Records, USA Networks,

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, Lord of the Rings,

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

Hewlett Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, ...

and

Phoenix Coyotes The Arizona Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Coyotes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and currently play at the Mull ...

launched Neoplanetˈs branded browsers among others. In the spring 2000, NeoPlanet moved its headquarters to

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

. It then raised $23 million from Integral Capital, J & W Seligman, Constellation Ventures, Broadview and several other investors during the second round of funding. Following the dot-com collapse, Neoplanet started its shift from branded browsers to developing and licensing customer relationship management (CRM) software in attempt to gain profitability. Warren Adelman, who previously served as vice president of business development at Bigfoot International, replaced Drew Cohen at

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

position. In August 2001, NeoPlanet released its Viassary

suite Suite may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition ** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach ** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó ** ''Suite' ...

designed to personalize PC usersˈ experience and to help companies to better understand and communicate with their customers."NeoPlanet Intros Multi-Platform Software That Extends Communications From Desktop To PDAs, Phones"
''Technology Marketing Corporation'', Retrieved on 2012-4-30.

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

, HP and

were among its clients.

References

External links

* * *{{cite web , url=http://www.neoplanet.com/ , title=NeoPlanet Inc. - NeoPlanet Browser Home , accessdate=2012-07-11 , url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120714050944/http://www.neoplanet.com/ , archivedate=2012-07-14 1997 establishments in New York City 2001 establishments in New York City Companies based in New York City Software companies established in 1997 Software companies disestablished in 2000 Defunct software companies of the United States Holding companies based in New York City Web 1.0