uBid.com was an

online auction An online auction (also electronic auction, e-auction, virtual auction, or eAuction) is an auction held over the internet and accessed by internet connected devices. Similar to in-person auctions, online auctions come in a variety of types, with ...

style and fixed-price shopping

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 ...

offering goods sold directly by the company and items sold by pre-approved third-party merchants. The site specialized in excess new, refurbished, and overstock

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

such as computers, electronics, home goods, jewelry, watches, and

cellular phones A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

History

uBid.com was formed and launched in 1997, originally as a subsidiary of PC Mall. In December 1998, during 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 ...

, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

, and achieved a market capitalization of over $1.8 billion at one point. After pricing at $15/share, the stock price reached $67 per share on its first day of trading. The company officially spun off from PC Mall with its co-founding management team in 1999. Ownership has changed multiple times over the years. In 2000, CMGI (now

Steel Connect Steel Connect, Inc. is an American company that provides supply chain management services to software companies. History The company was formed in 1968 as College Marketing Group by Glenn and Gail Mathews. At first, the company sold mailing lists ...

) acquired uBid in a stock transaction. In June 2001, the company reached an agreement to feature its listings on

Yahoo! Auctions Yahoo! Auctions is a service set up by the online search giant Yahoo! in 1998 to compete against eBay. There are currently only two localizations of the service active iTaiwananJapan Yahoo! has discontinued the service in the United States, Canad ...

. In November 2002, the company laid off 52 employees. In 2003, CMGI sold uBid to Takumi Interactive, owned by

Tom Petters Thomas Joseph Petters is a former American businessman and chairman and CEO of Petters Group Worldwide, a company which stole over $2 billion in a Ponzi scheme. He was convicted of massive business fraud in 2009 and was imprisoned at the United ...

and

Petters Group Worldwide Petters Group Worldwide was an American diversified company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota that was turned into a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme by its founder and CEO, Tom Petters. It had 3,200 employees and investments or full ownership in 60 compani ...

. In 2006, the company acquired the assets of Bidville.com. In 2010 the company underwent an involuntary bankruptcy petition. In October 2018, the company merged with Incumaker and in February 2019, the company changed its name to uBid Holdings, Inc. In 2020, the company began rebranding itself as a restaurant and entertainment digital coupon company after purchasing Restaurant.com and was renamed to RDE, Inc. As of 2022, the uBid website had been taken offline.

Notes

External links

uBid.com
(Dead link) {{Dot-com Bubble Online auction websites of the United States American companies established in 1997 Retail companies established in 1997 Internet properties established in 1997 Companies based in Chicago