http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3ZK3J5C8C&live=true

Boo.com, the online sportswear retailer, was on Tuesday night on the brink of collapse as attempts to secure additional funding from investors seemed doomed to failure.

People close to the company conceded that unless it secured the $30m of extra funding needed to take the business forward within 48 hours it would be forced to call in receivers.

If Boo fails to win a last-minute reprieve, it will be the highest profile casualty among European e-tailing start-ups.

It would be another blow to confidence among business to consumer internet companies, many of which are heavily loss-making and have seen their valuations plunge in recent weeks.

It is believed the company has developed a radical restructuring plan, which would be implemented immediately on receipt of any new funding. This would include the closure of a number of offices and redundancies.

When it raised about $120m last year, Boo was one of the best-funded European start-ups. It planned to sell fashion sportswear in 18 international markets. But it was plagued by a series of technical problems that delayed the launch of its website by five months to November.

Two months later it was forced to discount some of its products by 40 per cent and lay off about 90 staff in an attempt to turn around its performance.

It is understood that trading has improved since the beginning of the year. It had net sales of $657,000 in February, compared to $680,000 in the three months to January 31. There were about 500,000 unique users of the site in February.

But this may have failed to convince existing investors - including Europ@web, Bernard Arnault's internet investment vehicle, and 21 Investimenti, a vehicle owned by the Benetton family - as Boo's costs remain too high. Even after the redundancies it employs 300 staff, mainly in London, but it also has offices in Stockholm, Munich, Paris, New York and Amsterdam.

-- Jim McAteer (jim_mcateer@hotmail.com), May 17, 2000