{"id":11894,"date":"2009-11-24T11:33:49","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T19:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=11894"},"modified":"2009-11-24T13:24:20","modified_gmt":"2009-11-24T21:24:20","slug":"billabong-rides-a-swell-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=11894","title":{"rendered":"Billabong Rides A Swell Acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Swellabong\"<\/a>When Billabong<\/a><\/strong> announced yesterday (November 23, 2009) that it had “entered into a conditional agreement to acquire” online retailer Swell.com<\/a><\/strong> it brought to a close one of the most interesting action sports .com stories of the past decade.<\/p>\n

Founded by former Salomon Smith Barney<\/strong> analyst Nicholas Nathanson<\/strong> and entrepreneur Jeff Berg<\/strong> in late 1999 following the first crash of the Internet economy, Swell.com tried nearly everything to find online success and burned through millions of dollars on the way. Management tried snowboarding editorial and e-commerce, skateboarding editorial and e-commerce, they formed a “strategic alliance with Primedia’s <\/strong>Surfing Magazine<\/em><\/strong> in early 2001 and yet nothing seemed to work. It was only after they got back to basics and became an online catalog fashion retailer in November of 2001 that the company appeared to stabilize.<\/p>\n

Adding one more company to the list of his shrewd acquisitions over the past five years Billabong USA President Paul Naude<\/strong> spun this one nicely in the press release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to growing the Swell business and further developing it as a showcase online platform for the US boardsports industry,\u201d he said. \u201cThe internet plays a significant role in the recreational habits of the youth market so it is important for our Group to ensure we provide them with a premium brand experience when shopping online.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As hard as it is to believe, until this purchase, Billabong had made no real moves on selling direct online in the US. While Quiksilver hired Swell founder Nicholas Nathanson<\/strong> to build out their e-commerce platform, Billabong continued to sell online only through its retail network. More than anything, this purchase will allow Billabong to begin tapping into the higher margins that only selling direct can provide. That alone is a good enough reason for the purchase.<\/p>\n

Billabong says Swell.com had an annual turnover of less that $16 million and that it would contribute less than 1 percent of the company revenue, according to a story on Goldcoast.com.au<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What will be most interesting is to see how many of Billabong’s competitors (i.e. Quiksilver<\/strong>, Volcom<\/strong>, RVCA<\/strong>, Rip Curl<\/strong>, O’Neill<\/strong>, Hurley<\/strong>) continue to do business with the online\/catalog retailer after the sale is completed.<\/p>\n

We’ve been covering Swell.com since the beginning in 1999. Follow the jump for a Sacklunch\/Boardistan<\/strong> timeline of most Swell.com events of interest during the past decade (along with the commentary we wrote at the time) and relive all the .com good times.
\nMarch 15, 2000
\nSwell.com Written Up in Red Herring<\/a><\/strong>
\nThe cool-guy new business magazine puts up a report on the new surf start-up pointing out that it’s limited market could hurt it. Duh. Even funnier, they failed to mention that no surf manufacturers are interested in selling their product through Swell.com either.<\/p>\n

August 18, 2000
\nNathanson Moves Over At Swell.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nWe certainly lagged on this one, but it’s worth a read anyway. It’s interesting how the street always gets excited when a founder (Nicholas Nathanson in this case) is smart enough to move out of the way and let a real businessman take over once the going gets tough. That’s a nice way to put it. We’d probably call the new CEO the fall guy.<\/p>\n

September 15, 2000
\nSwell Launches Serena Brooke Profile<\/a><\/strong>
\nThey apologize on the front screen for not launching and are stretching the true definition of “late summer,” but the Swell machinists have created a pretty cool little interactive piece on Serena’s last season. Too bad it’s already six months old.<\/p>\n

September 22, 2000
\nSwell Signs Deal With iTurf<\/a><\/strong>
\nIn the effort to generate traffic Swell.com will become a “strategic partner” with teen network iTurf.com, because as we all know the average online teen chatroom junky can never find enough quality, over-produced, surf content. I’m sure Swell will fit in nicely with other quality iTurf sites like discountdomain.com, and StorybookHeirlooms.com.<\/p>\n

October 7, 2000
\nSo Far No Swell Launch<\/a><\/strong>
\nOctober 5, 2000 was supposed to be the unofficial “late summer” launch of the website known as Swell.com. But it didn’t happen. Yesterday Swell announced their whole management team filled with high-end Internet commerce players from E-Toys, Carsdirect, Quokka, and several other yet-to-be-profitable online sites. If you can’t launch, introduce your staff. Oh, and they plan to launch sometime “in the next couple weeks.” Please, no breath holding.<\/p>\n

November 29, 2000
\nMonster Skate Online<\/a><\/strong>
\nSwell.com’s skateboarding site, Monster Skate came online sometime in the past week. It features a similar setup to Swell. It also includes a Tony Hawk story by Hawk biographer Shaun Mortimer.<\/p>\n

November 29, 2000
\nCrossrocket Get’s New Excuse Page<\/a><\/strong>
\nProgress on Swell’s snowboard site Crossrocket is not coming along as well as skate apparently. The new front sceen says, “Right now, Crossrocket is on the prowl. . . in anticipation of showing everyone what we’ve been working on for the past eight months.” Cool. We didn’t know anyone was wondering.<\/p>\n

December 28, 2000
\nCrossrocket Launches<\/a><\/strong>
\nSwell.com limped another wounded pony out onto the online race track last week with their final installment of “e-category leaders” with the words, “You call this a website?” followed by another insightful excuse for not being ready: “By now you’ve probably clicked around the site and found that some of the buttons don’t take you anywhere, others take you to “Coming Soon!” pages and that there are still some bugs lurking in the shadows.” Congratulations. You must be very proud.<\/p>\n

January 15, 2000
\nMore Lay Offs at Swell.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nEmail recently received by Sacklunch stated that on January 15, 2001 approximately 15 more employees were laid off at Swell.com. “Last week they laid off a whole bunch of people and all but shut down the Northern California office,” said one e-mailer. Another former employee even called it “Black Monday” in the San Juan Capistrano office on Martin Luther King Day. “Today was a day of reckoning,” one e-mailer said. “Dead silence as one by one [employees] were escorted up the stairs by Doug Palladini.”<\/p>\n

January 23, 2001
\nSwell.com Buys Antix.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nJust when you thought the world would be one skate site smaller, Swell.com sweeps in and rescues Antix.com. The site, financed by a group of skate industry players was rumored to be out of biz for the past two weeks. Now it appears that it will continue to roll.<\/p>\n

February 23, 2001
\nAntix Climbs Back In the Saddle<\/a><\/strong>
\nAccording to a story on the front page of Antix, the “Swell-owned” site is back in business. Interestingly enough the “product” button links directly to the MonsterSkate shop. LOL. Those Swellians are finally catching on.<\/p>\n

March 30, 2001
\nCrossrocket Dead?<\/a><\/strong>
\nAccording to an e-mail sent out by Crossrocket editor Rob Campbell<\/strong>, the Swell-owned snowboard site Crossrocket is done. In his words, “The rumors are true. Crossrocket’s staff has left the building. Please send all taunts or a mean-spirited ‘I told you so’ to racamp2000@aol.com”. Monsterskate.com has been cut to one employee, and Swell is still kickin’.<\/p>\n

April 27, 2001
\nSwell Planned It All Along<\/a><\/strong>
\nSwell.com cuts 20 more jobs including all of the Crossrocket staff and all but one of the Monsterskate staff while trying to swing a chain of retail stores. Through it all CEO Jeff Berg has played it off as part of a master plan. Unfortunately, Mr. Berg sounds a little too much like a kid who, after falling flat on his face, jumps up and says, “I meant to do that.”<\/p>\n

May 18, 2001
\nSwell and Primedia Tighten The Knot<\/a><\/strong>
\nSwell and Primedia have gone past the foreplay stage. With a new strategic alliance in place Evan Slater, Larry Moore and Matt Walker will work for both Surfing Magazine and Swell out of the Surfing offices. Steve Hawk is back on the editorial program and Swell’s magazine section will be called “Surfing Magazine.” They will also share ad sales people like Swell’s John Cecil. God knows Surfing needed a website. But who knew they would get one so cheap?<\/p>\n

July 31, 2001
\nSwell Wins A Webby Award<\/a><\/strong>
\nIt was a night of geeks and freaks in San Francisco at the Annual Webby Awards and guess who was there to claim the prize for best sports site? Yep, the Swell.com guys. Well at least Swell investors got something for their $20 million.<\/p>\n

November 11, 2001
\nSwell Becomes Mail-order Only Site<\/a><\/strong>
\nSome Swell.com visitors will be surprised this week when they type in the URL only to find a page filled with T-shirts and flip-flops for sale. In an explanation posted November 3 it was all explained as a “marriage between two media companies.” Swell will now be the mail-order site while Surfing Magazine takes over the editorial duties in “The Magazine” section. While the original plan seems dead, we’re not dancing on Swell’s coffin just yet.<\/p>\n

January 15, 2002
\nLaguna Surf and Sport is Swell<\/a><\/strong>
\nEric “E.J.” John, the man who reportedly poo-poo’d online shopping by saying, “You can’t smell surf wax on the Internet,” has “merged” with Swell.com and finally helped make it the “click and mortar” play its always dreamed of being.<\/p>\n

August 13, 2009
\nSwell Launches Core Shops Direct<\/a><\/strong>
\nWe always thought that Swell.com was missing out on a large piece of the action sports fashion business by not setting up white-label sites that would allow smaller brands to easily sell direct by jumping on Swell.com\u2019s quality distribution system. . . . They still haven\u2019t done that, but with Coreshops by Swell they are branching out into an equally cool and potentially large side business, according to an interview with Swell.com CEO Stacy Clark on Shop-Eat-Surf.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Billabong announced yesterday (November 23, 2009) that it had “entered into a conditional agreement to acquire” online retailer Swell.com it brought to a close one of the most interesting action sports .com stories of the past decade. Founded by former Salomon Smith Barney analyst Nicholas Nathanson and entrepreneur Jeff Berg in late 1999 following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,17,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11894"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11894"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11905,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11894\/revisions\/11905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}