A report today says Fab.com, the design-conscious lifestyle e-commerce site, is just one good offer away from selling itself.
The company says it’s already been in discussions with several suitors about a sale, Fab.com CEO Jason Goldberg told Forbes in an email message:
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1521306,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,entrepreneur,marketing,","session":"B"}']“… We have had a lot of inbound interest in the valuable Fab brand and assets. We are currently evaluating such inquiries. We have no comment on the status of those discussions. As [a] point of fact, we are not shopping Fab around and we have not hired any bankers or agents.”
The people from Fab.com aren’t packing in completely; they want to go off in another product direction under a new brand. “We recently announced that we will be launching and spinning out Hem as a new online furnishings brand,” Goldberg wrote to Forbes.
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The pivot move seems to be baked into Fab.com’s DNA. The company started out as a flash sale site and then became an e-tailer, specializing in home furnishings, art, jewelry, some personal accessories.
Goldberg wouldn’t name the acquisition price his company is waiting to hear, but one analyst told Forbes that the brand is worth between $100 million and $150 million.
Contrast that with the $1 billion valuation analysts gave Fab.com last June just after it raised a $150 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and the China Internet giant Tencent.
But a lot has happened at Fab.com since those heady days last June. The company has lost some key execs, gone through a series of layoffs, and worked through the hard task of pivoting from a flash-deal site to a traditional e-commerce site.
At one time, Fab.com was killing it. In fact, it was setting records as recently as late 2012. Between Nov. 23 and Nov. 29 that year, Fab.com moved a total of $6.5 million of its design-forward products. On Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 — Cyber Monday — the site hit an all-time record with $1.3 million in sales.
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