Computer.com was a short-lived

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founded in 1999. After spending half of its $7 million in venture capital on ads during Super Bowl XXXIV, it was sold to

Office Depot The ODP Corporation is an American office supply holding company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company has combined annual sales of approximately $11 billion, and employs about 38,000 associates with businesses in the United States. ...

in 2000.Shroeder, Charlie
"The Dot-Com Super Bowl"
, ''

Weekend America ''Weekend America'' was a weekly public radio program dealing with news, popular culture, the arts and more. The program was produced for American Public Media and hosted by John Moe in Saint Paul, Minnesota. ''Weekend America'' launched Saturd ...

'', 2 February 2008. Accessed February 26 2014. It is significant as a

case study A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular fi ...

for business historians and others interested in the

dot-com bubble 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 ...

History

Prior to 1999, the domain computer.com was owned by

Gary Kremen Gary Kremen (born 20 September 1963) is an American engineer, entrepreneur and politician who founded the personals site Match.com, was the first registrant of Sex.com and founder of Clean Power Finance, and is a board member of the Santa Clara Va ...

, who sold it for $500,000. In 1999, Mike Ford and Mike "Zappy" Zapolin founded Computer.com as a general-purpose website to teach people about various aspects of computing. After raising $7 million in

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

,CNet.com gives the company's initial capital as $5.8 million. Computer.com partnered with an advertising agency to create three Super Bowl advertisements six weeks before the game started. Initially, they were dismayed, as due to their late entry, their time slot was located at the end of the game, at the two-minute warning. However, thanks to the closely contested game, the advertisement became one of the highest-rated of all time. After Super Bowl XXXIV, the company secured "an additional $2 million in a second round of funding."Sandoval, Greg
"Start-up with pricey Super Bowl ad goes bust"
''

Cnet ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

.com\\, 14 June 2000. Accessed February 28 2014. In late 2000, the company was sold to

Operation

It is unclear whether Computer.com ever turned a profit or delivered any kind of actual service to consumers.

Notes

References

{{Reflist American companies established in 1999 American companies disestablished in 2000 Computer companies established in 1999 Computer companies disestablished in 2000 Defunct computer companies of the United States Dot-com bubble

History

Operation

See also

Notes

References