After closing its doors, Multiply might be making a comeback

Multiply was dead, but it might not stay that way.

Although the website closed as a social networking site on December 1, 2012 and close down last May 6 and ceasing all business operations on May 31, 2013 along with the official online channels for the site had been removed along with all their content, including its YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, after years of financial and managerial turmoil and following a failed bid to reinvent itself from being a social networking site to a vibrant e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia, the owners of the defunct global social networking site might be eyeing a return, according to Monday court filings.

In the midst of an auction for its remaining assets, the hedge fund that owns the company decided to hang onto the Multiply brand name and other assets, such as their operations, the international subsidiary Multiply International and the social networking portion including 18 million user accounts with hosted blogs, videos, photos and messaging plus 691 million photos from Webshots, while considering “a new, operating Multiply branding company,” according to court documents.

Per statistics, Multiply has approximately 18 million users worldwide and 5.5 million users in the Philippines.

The potential revival would keep its global license agreements and “can invest in and create new, domestic and international businesses under the Multiply name, as well as expand its international presence and further develop its business,” the documents state.

The plan suggests that investors think it would be more lucrative to revamp the former social networking industry juggernaut than it would be to sell the pieces to qualified bidders.

The filings didn’t give any further details about what the business’s comeback might look like, nor did it offer a timeline.

Jeremy Williams, an attorney representing Multiply’s debtors, declined to comment on the future of the website.

After nine years of business, Multiply struggled in recent years to keep up with big-box and online competitors.

The company’s closure affected some 50,000 jobs.

"Sayang yung Multiply talaga. Kung by the time umupo si pangulong Duterte may existing Multiply na, eh di sana I-merge with Friendster and Webshots na lang sa mas malaking social network." (Unfortunately Multiply really. If President Duterte sat down with existing Multiply already, he wouldn't have merged with Friendster and Webshots just on the larger social network.)

"Seven years after the closure my God is still the fault of the previous administration"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/03/after-closing-its-doors-toys-r-us-might-be-making-comeback/