Update: A1Books Facing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy



Update: According to BBB, on July 19th, the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy was converted back into a Chapter 7 case. Webnotions CEO & Founder Shinu Gupta has not responded to requests for confirmation and more information. This conversion into Chapter 7 means that Webnotions will not be able to restructure, as had earlier been planned.

June 16th: We’d written a couple of days ago about the liquidation challenge that Webnotions, Inc, which owns online books retailing businesses A1Books.co.in (in which Times Internet Ltd/Indiatimes owns 50%) and A1Books.com faces; Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceedings, following a petition filed on April 26th 2010 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Shinu Gupta, founder and CEO of Webnotions, Inc, has informed us that this has now been converted to a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy proceeding, under which Webnotions will have the opportunity to restructure the company – reorganize its debt, and the business can continue. In an emailed response, Gupta, who is currently in New Jersey, had this to say:

“We have successfully converted chapter 7 to chapter 11 which we are very proud of and most of the vendors have started working with us. We are working hard to restructure the company to bring it back to it’s feet.”

We’ll have more post a conversation with Gupta. A1Books.co.in was founded in 1995, is based in Netcong, New Jersey, with Indian operations in Noida, UP. A recent profile of A1Books, which was seeking to raise $5 million in funding, here.

Related:
- Online Books Retailer A1Books Faces Liquidation Challenge In The US
- Difference between Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Indiatimes Picks Up 50 Percent Stake In Online Books Marketplace A1Books; A Private Treaties Deal

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  • Webmewebme

    Just a matter of time before they are done. They are just prolonging the inevitable death that is around the corner. Had they really had a plan they would have filed for Chapter 11 not put off the creditors and been forced into Chapter 7. You just reported that "Flipkart Raises $8-10M In Funding From Tiger Global". With that kind of funding do you think A1books can ever dream of competing. Without their bankruptcy the experience on A1books was terrible compared to shopping on Flipkart. Google A1books reviews shows nothing but hatred by customers, while Fllpkart has nothing but positives. That only speaks volumes of a company.

  • http://www.a1books.co.in Kishore

    Flipkart bloggers really are pro-active and too good to cash in on any opportunity to downgrade others, and promote themselves. Good strategy, could harm if overdone though! In fact it is pure Google-compatible technology that is doing good to flipkart. In the words of its CEO, A1Books does business on its own terms and without a penny of funding from anywhere, despite the continuing, in fact worsening, US recession and economic doom that triggered downfall of many giant corporate entities. A1Books in India is not as bad as quoted in most of the managed blog comments. A1Books are also equally good in the online space. People have stopped appreciating. With so much of outside funding, anyone should be doing big. Time should tell. It is too early to comment for or against. Wishing both of them to do well and these are only to customers benefits. Kishore

  • Kishore Response

    I am surprising you think Flipkart bloggers are promoting himself. It is the truth that A1books and Webnotions is poorly run company with a bad website. How is it happening that thousands of customers only say how bad customer service is, how bad shipping is and how they not receive response. A1books in the USA have less than 1 on score at resellerrating website while other sellers having 5-7 or maybe even 9. If you are saying Flipakart is making Google friendly site then why not A1books copy the same. A1books is actually doing a scam business. They offering books without keeping in stock, selling books on site charging customer immediately and keeping money. When customer complain in 3 weeks they open response and then after maybe some 6-8 weeks return money. Company use people money for 6-8 weeks for free. A1books not bankrupting because of economy, they just having no vision, no customer service, no good website just messy slow site and expensive books. Why i shop on A1books when I have rediff, flipkart crosswrd for india books and Amazon for import books and they all cheaper with guarantee and giving superb service. A1books just blaming seller, credit card company, post office and all. A1books just reselling book on Amazon and even on Amazon by studying rating number by people one can tell that business is down 200%. A1books have no product and money so business is down all over. Scam of fooling people is over, and customer having spoken. Only reason companys go out of business so good ones can serve people and customer is always right so they vote A1books to go out of business.

  • Suri Raman

    In an ruling dated July 19th, Judge Novalyn L. Winfield ordered Webnotions Case No. 10-21513 (NLW) converted to a Chapter 7 under the bankruptcy code. A trustee to be appointed to manage the asset sales is scheduled.

    Details of the above proceeding can be be viewed at https://ecf.njb.uscourts.gov/

  • Sid Oza
  • http://www.feedmysheep.biz H Correll

    The rotten part of all this is the number of sellers that had money in their acounts that they will never see now. A-1 quit doing automatic deposits and if you did not go there and transfer funds you never got paid. Thankfully, they only owned me $158.00. But they most likley got all of their sellers for money. If they "come back" I surely would not sell with them again.