Homes.com announced today that the company’s reorganization plan was confirmed by Judge Montali in the Federal Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco on October 31, 2002. For all intents and purposes, October 31st is the bankruptcy exit date, although there are post-confirmation activities to complete.

Tom Orsi, CEO, of Homes.com, says, “This represents a major milestone in our recovery. We have succeeded in the face of the toughest economic environment in the last 20 years. The company has been EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization) profitable on a GAAP basis since November 2001. The secured creditors are being paid in full over time. The majority of unsecured creditors owed over $2,000 had the choice of accepting $.05 on the dollar in cash, or converting their debt to a new common stock equity position of 1 share for each $3 of debt. Those owed under $2,000 were paid $.25 on the dollar in cash. We have well over $2 million of unrestricted cash, plus approximately $800,000 of cash on reserve with merchant banks and others. We will use approximately $1.4 million to settle claims that we have agreed to pay to secured and unsecured creditors as outlined in our plan of reorganization. We also expect to secure a $1.5 million line of credit. We are rebuilding the company by returning to basics and focusing on our core competencies which are providing the best consumer portal for property listings available on the Internet and the best customer service, agent and broker websites, and technology tools for real estate professionals.”

John Perkins, COO, of Homes.com, comments, “We’ve been asked if we are the first dot-com to exit bankruptcy without being acquired as a method of exiting. It’s a tough question to answer definitively. We have checked with webmergers.com, bankruptcy courts, attorneys, American Bankruptcy Institute, our VC, Business Week Magazine’s online technology editor and more. None of them is able to definitively answer the question. They all, however, would agree that exiting bankruptcy is a significant accomplishment that very few companies achieve.”

Upon exiting, Homes.com has just released its new next generation agent flagship website line called AgentExpert™. Andrew Fishman, Director of Direct Sales touts it as an unparalleled lead generation website that eliminates cold reactive prospecting and lets the agent focus on warm to hot leads exclusively. It even allows agents to track the return on investment from various other traditional advertising efforts. AgentExpert™ is a completely integrated web and communications solution.

Published: November 6, 2002

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