StudiVZ is bankrupt
The former Facebook competitor StudiVZ is bankrupt. Poolworks, the company behind what was once the largest German friends network, filed for insolvency at Charlottenburg District Court.
This is the result of a public announcement by the local court on Friday. Lawyer Jesko Stark was appointed as the provisional insolvency administrator. Poolworks and Stark could not initially be reached.
The online magazine Start-up scene had first learned of the bankruptcy. Start-up scene Stark was confident that the company can continue to operate with its current seven employees.
StudiVZ lost the race for users to networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Xing years ago. On its website, Poolworks speaks of ten million people who are registered with the VZ networks. Facebook is used by more than two billion people every month.
The Stuttgart-based Holtzbrinck publishing house (The time, Rowohlt) took over StudiVZ in 2007, two years after it was founded, and put a good 80 million euros on the table. In the meantime, Facebook is also said to have been interested in the network. StudiVZ turned out to be a big flop for Holtzbrinck: in 2012, the operator of the internet platform, Poolworks, was sold to the US investment company Vert Capital. (SDA)
