Living.com lives no more

Two year-old online furniture retailer Living.com is the latest b2c dot.com to close its doors. The Austin, Texas-based e-retailer says it will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and that it is not able to raise the additional funds needed to gain profitability. The company laid off 275 employees yesterday, following a May workforce reduction of 50, which CEO Shaun Holliday said at the time would speed the companyâs progress toward profitability. The companyâs web site went down today, and calls to company headquarters received a recorded message saying that Living.com had been forced to cease operations "by circumstances beyond our control." In February, the company had announced it planned to spend $145 million over five years to be the exclusive furniture and home furnishings partner of Amazon.com, which held an 18% stake in the company. Among other investors in the company are Benchmark Capital and Starbucks Corporation.