InterX bites the dust

UK software firm emerges with just £530,000, no business and no rights to its own name...

UK software company InterX has finally given up the ghost, selling the rights to its flagship web publishing platform Net2020 to The innovation Group (TiG) for £1.3m. In a statement to the London Stock Exchange today, InterX admitted it is now left with no business, and will look to realise the value of whatever assets it has left. Back in the dot-com boom days InterX bought the Net2020 software - then called Bladerunner - through its £226m acquisition of Cromwell Media. Since then it has invested a further £30m in developing the platform, all to no avail. Today's sale for £1.3m represents a write-off of over £250m from early 2000 - 99.5 per cent of its value. Furthermore the deal will see most of InterX's staff move over to TiG, and InterX will change its name by the end of October. InterX stands to get just £530,000 from today's sale, after paying legal fees. Last year the firm's position became increasingly precarious as technology issues prevented Net2020 from delivering expected sales. At the same time Italian subsidiary Diligenti refused to pay back £18m it was lent by the firm. This culminated in a £153m quarterly loss in February, on revenues of just £500,000. InterX today said: "The current financial vulnerability of the group has irreparably damaged its credibility as a viable enterprise software vendor and has accordingly impacted its ability to convert its sales prospects into revenue." Simon Barker, chief executive of InterX, was unavailable for comment at the time of publication. TiG said today it expects to bundle the InterX software suite in as part of its principal offering iBOS.