British business-to-business Internet group J2C, formerly called Just2Clicks, is giving up the struggle to keep going.
One of the pioneers of B2B web services in Britain, J2C said it had failed to find a buyer and now planned to close all but one of its operations. The last business, BestValueZone, is still for sale.
The closures were accompanied by a return of almost all its £36.1 millionof remaining cash to shareholders .
Shares in the group climbed 10.7 per cent to 31 pence in early trade in London, moving towards the price of the buyback which depends on shareholder approval.
Friday's first-half results told their own story of over optimistic investment for the group, whose shares peaked at 10 times Friday's level in February 2000.
Turnover for the six months to March was just £700,000 million against a loss from ordinary activities of 34.2 million.
The loss included a 26.5 million "impairment of goodwill" write off - reflecting the steep fall in Internet asset valuations over the past 15 months.
Despite the sale of a number of businesses earlier in the year, J2C continues to burn cash at a net rate of £325,000 a month.
"We have clearly demonstrated that B2B markets can deliver significant savings but take-up and usage of B2B generally has been far short of expectations," said chief executive, Mr Karl Watkin.
The number of people employed by J2C have fallen from 135 at the peak to 58.