PurchasePro files for bankruptcy

The one-time Wall Street darling has agreed to sell its assets to a privately held company and also said it has reached an agreement with the SEC to settle an investigation.

Reuters

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Oct. 12, 2002 4:00 a.m. PT

Business software maker PurchasePro, the one-time Wall Street darling whose shares once traded as high as $224, on Thursday said it filed for bankruptcy protection and agreed to sell its assets to privately held Perfect Commerce.

The company also said it reached an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle the regulators' investigation into the company and its dealings with other technology firms. One such partnership under investigation was PurchasePro's relationship with AOL Time Warner, through which AOL licensed and sold PurchasePro's business-to-business software.

PurchasePro did not provide the financial terms of the sale to Palo Alto, Calif.-based Perfect Commerce, which makes auction software. It said the sale had yet to be approved by the U.S bankruptcy court in Nevada.

PurchasePro said it would continue to operate during the reorganization process and that it had the option of obtaining up to $750,000 debtor in possession financing.

PurchasePro's shares closed at 22 cents on the Nasdaq on Thursday.