Troubled online directory firm Scoot.com said today it was looking to sell the business or find a strategic partner, but that it had enough cash to trade at least until the beginning of October.
The company said that if shareholders approved the planned sale of its main asset - the Loot classified directory business - it would be able to continue to trade until May next year.
But is said remaining as a stand-alone business was less viable and it would prefer to sell up or find a partner.
The firm also announced a pre-tax loss of £171.6 million sterling for the six months to end-June, compared to a loss of £15.6 million in the same period last year.
It wrote off £108.4 million of goodwill for Loot and provided for £5.5 million in costs of its strategic review, announced in June, which would cover job cuts, relocation and costs of severing contracts.
The firm called an extraordinary shareholders' meeting for September 28th to vote on the sale of Loot to a unit of newspaper publisher Daily Mail General & Trust Plc, which is expected to complete on October 1.
The deal would bring in net proceeds of 42.8 million pounds ($63 million), of which £10.6 million would be used to repay a bridging finance facility and £17.6 million for settling outstanding convertible debentures.
Shares in Scoot, trading at a tiny fraction of their historic levels, closed at 1.4 p on Tuesday, valuing the group at about £10 million. It had reached a peak of about £2.4 billion at the height of Internet fever last year.