Closed for business: 2012’s victims
2012 has been a strong year for tech, but not everything is perfect in the market with some companies and services hitting all-time lows, and even closing their doors.
Africa Cellular Towers
Africa Cellular Towers
Africa Cellular Towers (ACT) issued its final liquidation order on 30 July 2012, following the South Gauteng High Court ruling that the company shut its doors.
On 16 May, ACT said it had reached an agreement for the restructuring of funding from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).
However, that deal fell through after strain from liquidation applications from creditors, while executive director, Nick van der Mescht also announced his resignation from the ailing company.
On 1 June 2012, it was reported that Africa Cellular Towers was facing at least three applications for liquidation from major creditors, leading the company request that the JSE suspend trading in its securities, at the time.
By the end of July, the company closed for good.
Status: Closed
Hayibo.com
South African parody and satirical news site, Hayibo.com, recently announced that it would be closing its doors, for a second time.
The site’s owner and founder, Tom Eaton, noted that this time round, there would be no revival.
In September 2010, Hayibo said it would close its doors due to a lack of funding – however an 11th-hour bailout by specialist publishing house, Cape Media, kept the site functioning and it continued to do so until September 2012.
In September, Hayibo ventured away from the purse strings of Cape Media in an attempt to operate on its own.
As a part of its new business strategy, Hayibo hired the services of digital and social media service provider, Creative Spark Interactive, to handle ad sales and consult on ways to grow the site.
However, after only a few months on its own, Hayibo’s managing team decided to fold as the new strategy failed to bring in the required funds.
Status: Closed
Vodacom The Grid/Zoopy
Vodacom‘s mobile social network, The Grid, closed on 1 December 2012
The Grid was a location-based mobile social network that allowed users to chat to friends, see where they were on a map and share photos or videos with them.
The social network platform started up in 2007 and was fully funded and supported by Vodacom, which provided the infrastructure and resource support.
Another Vodacom asset, Zoopy, which is a mobile video platform, has also since gone offline after a reported two month “off the air” period and a promised a relaunch in November 2012.
While Zoopy updated briefly in late November, the site has been taken down and has remained offline as of 12 December 2012.
There has been no information forthcoming from Vodacom on the site’s status.
Status: Closed/Uncertain
Megaupload
In January, the US department of justice managed to shut down infamous file hosting site, Megaupload.com.
The site’s assests were frozen and the domains were seized, while arrest warrants were issued for the site’s owners – including founder Kim Dotcom – for running an organisation which the DOJ said was dedicated to copyright infringement.
BTJunkie, a website indexing torrent files, shut down voluntarily on 6 February 2012 as a result.
Although it was goodbye to Megaupload.com and BTjunkie, the Internet didn’t take the move lying down and engaged in denial-of-service attacks on a range of websites belonging to the US government and copyright organisations in retaliation.
Status: Closed
Kodak
Eastman Kodak is still in operation; however, the company once famous for its cameras and photographic equipment is now a shadow of its former self.
After filing for bankruptcy protection in January, Kodak started scaling back its business.
In February, Kodak announced that it would stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames and focus on the corporate digital imaging market.
In August 2012, Kodak planned to sell its film, commercial scanners and kiosk divisions – and in October, the struggling company stopped its inkjet printer sales.
Not out, but definitely down, there are doubts as to whether the once-great Kodak brand could ever rebound from the doldrums.
Status: Critical
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