Thousands show up for WorldPoint auction
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
An estimated 2,500 people turned out for a downtown auction yesterday to take a look at office equipment and computers no longer needed by the previously high-flying Honolulu-based Internet company WorldPoint.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
A victim of the dot-com industry crash, the company sold its Bishop Street penthouse office possessions to help pay off an overdue state business loan of $800,000.
Flat-screen television sets valued at $15,000 each were just some of the items up for bid yesterday at WorldPoint's auction. The Honolulu-based Internet company sold its equipment to pay off a state loan.
One bidder reportedly paid $10,000 for the Internet domain name of www.ala
moana.com. Auction officials would not say who made that winning bid.
Auctioneer Mark Glen would not say how much money was raised yesterday, but said an average auction raises about 25 to 30 cents on the dollar value of sold merchandise.
"Since there was a lot of electronic equipment, (the return) was probably slightly higher," said Glen, who handled the six-hour auction.
Some of the more extravagant items up for bid included flat-screen television sets valued at $15,000 each, five 10-foot high waterfall fountains and a black leather massage chair.
"Kind of makes you wonder what they spent the state loan on," said one male observer, smirking at the fountains, which didn't receive a single bid.
At its peak, the company had annual sales of more than $1 million but was spending in excess of $3 million per year. WorldPoint's business suffered over the past six months as the economy faltered and key clients, including Kodak, IBM and Nike, cut back on online expenses.
The state last month sued WorldPoint and several of its initial investors over failure to repay the 1996 loan.
