When Internet consultancy marchFIRST filed for protection in United States bankruptcy court on April 12, things looked grim for the Hong Kong branch of the firm.
After weeks of uncertainty as to the fate of the SAR operation, Andrew Nevin, managing executive of Asia-Pacific announced the office also would wind down operations. The marchFIRST saga is a classic Internet boom-bust case study.
The company was formed out of the merger of Web design firm US Web, and systems integrator Whittman-Hart. The wedding of the two occurred on March 1, 2000 (hence the name). Barely 12 months later, the relationship was on the rocks.
Last April, the firm's shares were trading at US$42. At its height, the company had almost 10,000 employees in 14 countries, including an office in Hong Kong. Trading in marchFIRST shares was halted late on the March 29 after the firm failed to satisfy a request for information from Nasdaq officials.
Trading resumed on April 2, after the firm announced layoffs of 30 per cent of the staff and a plan to sell off large chunks of the business to Internet software and services firm Divine. Trading was suspended again on April 12 after marchFIRST announced voluntary filing of a Chapter 11 petition in bankruptcy court.
While the petition covered all US divisions and affiliates of marchFIRST, the Hong Kong and European business units were not included.
Experts offer a variety of explanations for marchFIRST's meteoric rise and fall.