Fucked Company was a
website
A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...
created by
Philip J. "Pud" Kaplan after the
dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...
in 2000 as a "
dot-com dead pool
A dead pool, also known as a deadpool or death pool, is a game of prediction which involves guessing when someone will die. Sometimes it is a bet where money is involved.
Modern application
In the early 20th century, dead pools were popular i ...
" that chronicled troubled and failing companies in a unique and abrasive manner.
The website also sold rumor listings to subscribers. The site's name is a parody of ''
Fast Company
''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually.
History
''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...
'', a magazine that began covering technology companies during the Internet dot-com boom.
A September 10, 2000 attempt by Kaplan to put the entire site up for sale on eBay attracted joke bids as high as
$10 million but no serious buyers.
History
Fucked Company (commonly abbreviated FC) allowed employees to post anonymous comments on why their employer was losing money, had abused employees, or was discriminating against some group, identifying unethical managers and defective products or services by name. Employees were free to explain why they thought the companies were going out of business. This made the site a target for
strategic lawsuits against public participation
Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPP suits or intimidation lawsuits), or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with ...
from companies. The site was taken offline for two days in August 2002;
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...
law firm Howard Phillips & Andersen had threatened litigation against FC's upstream provider
HostGator
HostGator is a Houston-based provider of shared, reseller, virtual private server, and dedicated web hosting with an additional presence in Austin, Texas.
History
HostGator was founded in October 2002 by Brent Oxley, who was then a student a ...
as a means of silencing a discussion of a series of layoffs entitled "Ford, where finding a job is job one." Ford claimed that it
infringed a trademark slogan "Ford, where quality is job one," discontinued after widespread use from 1980 to 1997. The site eventually returned minus the news of the Ford layoffs.
Even where the cases were spurious or were settled out of court for a small fee, it drained the resources of FC to fight these lawsuits. As a
consumer complaint
A consumer complaint or customer complaint is "an expression of dissatisfaction on a consumer's behalf to a responsible party" (London, 1980). It can also be described in a positive sense as a report from a consumer providing documentation about ...
site, FC also faced increasing competition from new entrants, including
social networking
A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...
providers.
Michael Arrington
J. Michael Arrington (born March 13, 1970) is the American founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, a blog covering the Silicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in America and elsewhere. Magazines such as ...
announced on March 31, 2007 that
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare.
I ...
had acquired FuckedCompany.com in an
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. ...
joke press release.
Starting in August 2007, the site ceased posting new content, and later converted its main page to the simple message:
References
External links
*{{cite news, last=Wolverton, first=Troy, url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-245542.html, title=Dot-com doom site up for auction on eBay, date=11 September 2000, work=CNet News, access-date=8 August 2012, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925065843/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-245542.html, archive-date=2012-09-25, url-status=dead
American news websites
Internet forums
Defunct online companies of the United States
Dot-com bubble
2000 establishments in the United States
2007 disestablishments in the United States
Internet properties established in 2000
Internet properties disestablished in 2007