Garden.com Sells Assets to Walmart.com, Burpee

On Nov 15, 2000, Garden.com said it would be closing its doors and that it planned to sell its consumer business assets after it failed to secure financing to fund operations or find a buyer for the company.

The company said it received an aggregate amount of $4.425 million for these assets, of which about $800,000 was deposited in escrow and is subject to a possible reduction based on a post-closing adjustment, and $500,000 of which had been previously deposited with the company.

Walmart.com, the Brisbane, Calif.-based online store of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., acquired all of Garden.com's major content assets, including editorial, interactive and film content. Walmart.com plans to look to integrate parts of the content into Wal-Mart's garden centers as well as into the Walmart.com site (www.walmart.com).

Burpee bought Garden.com's brand assets, including the company's URL (www.garden.com) and certain assets relating to customer information.

Austin, Tex.-based Garden.com said the transfer of customer and member information is subject to providing prior notice and providing individuals the right to their own information.

Garden.com said it still plans to evaluate bids and other strategic alternatives for its other assets, including its hardware, equipment and Green Cheetah, its 80-percent owned subsidiary, which is developing database performance software.