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APBnews assets sold
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September 7, 2000: 4:02 p.m. ET
SafetyTips.com buys APBnews for $375,000 less than initial 'lifeline' offer
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - After rescinding its original $950,000 bid to buy the assets of Internet news site APBnews.com, SafetyTips.com on Thursday bought them at auction for $575,000 in cash.
APBnews.com, which had been operating under bankruptcy protection since early July, is an online news site focusing on crime and safety reporting. It was established in 1998 and exhausted its funding when, with waning interest in the capital markets for dot.com companies, it could not complete a third round of financing in March.
SafetyTips.com emerged late last month with a $950,000 offer for APBnews.com's assets but then rescinded it less than a week later after executives at the Waltham, Mass.-based company said they examined the company's financial records more closely.
Through a newly created subsidiary, SafetyTips.com was able to acquire APBnews.com's assets for $375,000 less than it had originally offered after they were put up for auction at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in lower Manhattan Thursday and no higher bids emerged.
"We are pleased with the outcome of the auction and look forward to reviving an extraordinary media and consumer resource," SafetyTips.com chief executive Yovette Mumford said in a statement.
Mumford did not return phone calls seeking additional details about the company's future plans for APBnews.com and its New York City-based employees.
The assets SafetyTips.com bought include: the name; entire Web site and 20,000 pages of source code and other programming assets; all Internet domain names and URLs; all radio and audio programming; and all trademark and patents.
Proceeds from the sale will go toward meeting APBnews.com's creditors' claims. The company had roughly $7 million in outstanding debt when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early July.
Launched early this summer with backing from Rare Medium Group Inc. (RRRR: Research, Estimates) and Apollo Management LP, SafetyTips.com is a Web site focused on safety issues at home and in the workplace.
The company said a transition team, which will include members of APBnews.com's staff, has been formed to orchestrate the transfer of assets and to ensure that the site's content would live on. The APBnews.com site is expected to continue operating through the transition.
The purchase is expected to close as early as Thursday afternoon. 
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