Fashionmall Buys Boo Name, Content

The other shoe has dropped for insolvent fashion e-retailer Boo.com. Following the sale of the site's order fullfillment technology, Fashionmall.com has acquired the remainder, including Boo's domain name, trademarks and content, from liquidator KPMG. But don't expect to see the Boo name used to sell merchandise.

Fashionmall says it intends "to leverage the brand and international traffic of Boo.com to grow its vertical portal strategy for fashion outside U.S. borders." Boo.com will provide an entry point for international fashion consumers to global fashion retailers, manufacturers, catalogs and magazines, the new owner says.

Boo.com launched last fall, months later than planned, following a flashy and expensive PR blitz. The site had backing from Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, LVMH's Bernard Arnault, and other high-profile investors, who declined to rescue the company after it ran aground financially early this year. The site, originally set up to sell sports apparel and footwear, had 558,000 unique visitors in April, making it one of the Internet's most-visited fashion sites.

Fashionmall, launched in 1994, operates vertical portals focused on fashion, accessories, footwear, beauty and related products and generates revenue by selling traffic, space and advertising to vendors and from transaction fees on sales. The firm's properties include Fashionmall.com, Outletmall.com and Styleexperts.com.