| A mere two weeks after promising that RealEstate.com wasn't closing its doors after layoffs and executive departures, founder and CEO Allan F. Daniels and other top executives are looking for work after the company was sold to the investment banking firm J.P. Carey.
In addition to Daniels, other executives leaving the company include chief strategic officer and co-founder Lisa Beale; Kenneth Mack-Solden, executive vice-president of marketing; and Lou Roden executive vice-president of human resources. They resigned, according to written statements issued by the company.
Terms of the sale agreement weren't available, but J.P. Carey acquired a 25 percent stake in RealEstate.com for $2.5 million when it was a start-up. What exactly it planned to do with company, whose most valuable remaining asset may be it’s domain name, was unclear.
The sale comes after RealEstate.com seemed to epitomize the meaning of Murphy’s Law.
The company reportedly spent millions on acquiring its domain name and on marketing. It abandoned hope for an initial public offering several months ago, had merger talks with Homes.com collapse after a month — after the proposed merger had been officially announced to the Homes & Land Magazine (parent company of Homes.com)associate publisher network, which greeted the news with an uproar, and laid off about half of its 150 employees to drop to about 80. A summer road trip in search of $30 million in funding also was futile.
Nick Karris, an online realty analyst with Gomez Advisors, said he wasn't surprised at RealEstate.com's direction. Gomez's online realty scorecard rated RealEstate.com just 18th among companies, and said its Web site confused customers and provided inconsistent service.
"They've been struggling with their focus," said Karris. "They've been struggling not just to be successful but to survive. They haven't been able to get many strategic partnerships, or find funding. Their MortgageAuction was probably their most interesting offering. (But) it just didn't work for them. They never really had a strong chance."
Daniels was key in putting together the Atlanta-based business-to-business application service provider a couple of years ago via the merger of Atlanta-based Resicom Analytics; Clarkston, Ga.-based MortgageAuction.com; and Pasadena, Calif.-based Equitran.com.
Atlanta-based investment banker J.P. Carey arranges equity and debt financing for publicly traded companies. Some other companies it is involved with include Allure Fusion Media Inc. and LicensingZone.com.
RealEstate.com has offices in Atlanta Financial Center in Buckhead, as does J.P. Carey. | 
