Russell Quirk told EYE this evening that there are still three possible buyers for troubled Emoov.
However, he said that if one of these does not come good over this weekend, the business will be looking at its future.
He said that there is no guarantee that staff would be paid.
Quirk did say that the firm is not in administration, but that the firm James Cowper, previously named in some stories as possible administrators, are acting as advisors.
Quirk said he had also had to miss appearing as a speaker at today’s Negotiator conference, in order to deal with the crisis.
In talks late this evening with EYE, he did not name any of the three possible bidders for his business.
However, a trusted source told us: “A pre-pack deal will be done over the weekend and completed early next week.”
Comments (43)
Anyone know if emoove ’employees got paid on Friday?
I can confirm we didn’t…
Tv67am Very sorry to hear that .The very best of luck I think the industry ought to start a just giving page for the staff of Emoov who are collateral damage in all this just before Xmas.
The crowdfund in July was 150% overfunded,Where do you think the money has gone or was the whole pitch fundamentally flawed as it relied on investment “promised” elsewhere which never materialised?
These words by Headphones over the weekend sticks in the craw.Seems to avoid accepting any personal blame for the predicament .
The very fact he was already making moves in September .setting up new companies when he should have been concentrating on Emoov can’t sit well either
“You’ll be aware that Emoov has consistently been rated the best by its customers amongst its competitors year after year via the combined average rating on Trustpilot, AllAgents and Google Reviews. “Emoov has previously won numerous awards for its customer service and we should be defined by the great work in that regard .”
Hillofwad71 crowdfunding?
Sorry these so called FSBO staff knew what they were doing and use to slag the high street off. I don’t feel sorry for them.
Many good agencies have closed around us due to pressure put on fees by these FSBO sites. They are the ones I feel sorry for.
“Many good agencies have closed around us due to pressure put on fees by these FSBO sites. They are the ones I feel sorry for.”
To be fair I am sure they haven’t closed because of Emoov .A good agent should be able to prove his or her worth .There will always be competition on fees
Many of the support staff have just taken a job in good faith Also some of the LPEs are young and impressionable have been suckered in by Headphones
What is truly repugnant is that Headphones has stood as an ambassador for the industry
Mr. Quirk and Mr. Desmond have to make provision for contingent liabilities, taking instructions and attempting to trade with doing so puts them in a position I would not like to be in.
The 500 or so additional listings that have added to the Emoov as a result of the £15m Channel 4 advertising campaign could be possibly the most expensive loss leaders of all time. At about £30,000 a time not only have C4 shown how inefficient TV advertising has become, but those 500 vendors have bought a service the firm seems unlikely to fulfill. More importantly the firm knew they were unlikely to fulfil. Perhaps that is why Mr Desmond appears to have said no more and brought this to a very swift conclusion.
Richard Desmond has a very heightened awareness of family history which suffered under previous regimes in Germany .To the point where he interrupted a board meeting at the Daily Telegraph goosestepping in protest at the prospect of them being taken over by a German company. It would be safe to say he would have some serious objections in Emoov ending up in the hands of Axel Springer.
Dont forget he has seriously deep pockets which will allow him ultimately to decide the fate of Emoov
Dont forget he has seriously deep pockets which will allow him ultimately to decide the fate of Emoov..
He has surely worked out that the business model is a dud. He could pump his entire fortune in and still run a poor second to PB.
Why not retain control and let another Beeny/Quirk wannabe trash the model/sector even further !
#Schadenfreude
What I am saying is the fate of Emoov is in his gift. Whether he chooses to let it go and put it down to experience ,keep it cooking or sell to a third party will ultimately rest with him.
In the whole scheme of things Emoov are petty cash to him. I doubt very much RD ever put a valuation on Emoov remotely near £100m that was very much a Headphones creation
Its very doubtful he will let it go to Axel who apart for the reason mentioned in the last post are in addition are competitors to other businesseshe has interests in
Agreed. The question is whether he can gain an advantage by selling a money-pit to a competitor?
Perhaps Yopa?
Yes -I really hadn’t factored that possibilty in.”Revenge is a dish best served cold “
I think the three buyers have come to there senses.
I can not even see a pre pack deal being done.
Let’s see what Monday brings.
Those who are heavily invested in disruption can’t really afford for emoov to collapse especially after all the big hooray of it being worth £100m just a few months ago.
While the natural reaction is; let emoov implode, its great for business, all those lovely instructions from people who hate agents and want to save themselves a fortune. All hail our share price! The very public collapse of a £100 million business that has just enjoyed £15m of advertising on Channel 4, Sarah Beeny blah blah blah, James Caan, Dragon’s Den, yadda yadda yadda, Richard Desmond this that and the other, will be damaging and will seal the fate of disruption now and forever more.
While Woodford and Axel Springer still have so much exposed skin in the game the few quid needed to buy up emoov will go some way to save their blushes, for now!
You may be right – but will Richard Desmond let it go to Woodford/Axel Springer for peanuts?
He may be prepared to let it collapse to spite them, as he will already have made money in “management charges” from both Beeny & Quirk – who have been well and truly kippered.
Tepilo and Emoov have now disappeared off Zoopla !!!!
Their own site looks like business as usual though. Shouldn’t they be warning potential customers that they might not be in business soon?
Tepilo are also off Rightmove.
Where dies that leave customers who paid to have their properties on the sites?
Another good reason not to pay anyway
It leaves them out of pocket, with no chance of compensation (unless someone like Yopa takeover and honour existing commitments).
An expensive lesson, although some generous High Street Agents will no doubt step in and offer a reduced NSNF to soften the blow?
Hopefully the fallout will include some really bad press for online only operators !
I would not normally knock a business in this situation because of the staff, investors and customers are the real losers here. However, Mr Quirk has spent so much time bad mouthing the sector and speaking such tosh that there is a certain satisfaction in watching the drama unfold.
Investors know the risk and this was obviously at the very risky range of opportunities, so that’s life.
The staff must have seen this coming some way off and if they continued to sign customers over the last few weeks, they must have done so knowing that it was money down the drain.
The customers have just wasted their money and some would argue they have been ripped off by a company that knew full well it would be unable to service them.
Which brings up the question of was the company trading whilst insolvent? It is clear that the company was aware that it could not meet its liabilities and if the supposed suitors for the business cannot be verified as serious, then it could become very interesting.
It may well be that N&S thinks there may be still some mileage in Emoov.I think they very quickly got the measure of Quirk and his quest for publicity and have let him have plenty of rope
Thieir teams are more than capable of getting stuck into Emoov if they feel it has half a chance and bringing in the right people
Gutted for the staff involved, hope they get their wages somehow.
Would love to know the total of other peoples money Mr Quirk has spent.
Quite a few joined in July some so recent they haven’t had time to change their linked in profiles
Jen joined in September at the same time Quirk was setting up his new company
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-lyon-895438163/
That is just out of order…… I could describe it in other ways but thats the politest way I can put it.
Bang out of order with rainbow promises!
The irony of it all .On the panel THE FUTURE OF PROPERTY AGENCY. I guess even Headphones didn’ have the neckto turn up and face his peer group
https://www.thenegotiatorconference.co.uk/sessions/panel-debate-choices-the-future-of-property-agency/
With flatpacks these tend to happen over the weekend so the new beast can hit the floor running on the Monday.An extremely unpleasant experience usually for small investors as they wake up to see their investment has disappeared over the horizon with its backside on fire
DTZ shareholders which included many members of staff only know full well
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/8936953/DTZ-becomes-a-victim-of-the-financial-crisis.html
However It sounds very much to me that old Headphones has been confronted with the fact that maybe his”friends” Northern &Shell by virtue of their charge over the company might have more of a say in this sorry affair
It’s looking more like an exit strategy for Northern & Shell – they already had experience of “property expert” Beeney’s Tepilo and didn’t like what they saw.
They were able to hook the greedy Quirk with some tasty free TV advertising (Channel 4 ) and have now had a chance to look at how a “proper expert” operates.
The pre-pack will clear debts and there may be a buyer at that point – subject to what Northern & Shell can takeaway.
Could Richard Desmond join that exclusive club – selling two online agents for an actual profit?
Yep Quirk seriously deluded if he thinks he might be able to get one over on Desmond who ultimately will be the sole arbiter of where this is going
It could happen this weekend with the fictitious buyers..lol.
42 hours and counting…..
I love Russell’s hubris about being a speaker at the Negotiator conference.
The emperor with no clothes comes to mind here. Not entirely sure anyone wants to listen to the CEO of a failed disrupter spruik about… er please remind me what’s left to spruik about for you Russell?
I briefly saw the backend of the eMoov platform, and it’s a clunker.
The PB platform is surprisingly clunky too.
So anyone “buying” the only thing left, is buying a pile of junk that’s better off being scrapped/deleted.
£1 is too much
Just thought it worth mentioning but given Rod, Jane and Freddie were also missing from the negotiator awards, is there a new consortium on the horizon?
So Russell had to actually do his job today, must be a novel concept rather than being a media luvvie. Also quit trying to be an estate agent, “Three interested parties”….My a*** is there. At best there is one party mulling it over that you are tying to pressure into chucking some money in. More likely come Monday no one will have looked seriously at the company.
Anyone still working at Emoov, time to get back into proper estate agency.
Would love to know where all the millions have gone. Not sure about him setting up a PR agency, looks more like he has knowingly gone out there desperate to fulfil his addiction to not want to fail yet using others money knowingly that the model was flawed and they’d never see it again. Absolute joke of a business.
I absolutely feel for the staff at the coal face that have worked their socks off, and are currently not knowing whether they will get paid less than four weeks before Christmas. It feels like Russell Quirk is drip feeding them hope even though everyone knows they are a car crash of a company.
Russell…… get a grip! ……instead of pedalling your media circus …..get on with your business and looking after your staff who must think they have a headless chicken in charge of their future.
I have no time for Online Only Property Listers however I do have time for the footsoldiers and you have a responsibility to them, never mind the shareholders that you have sucked money from (mind you, it’s hard to apportion any sympathy towards investors?).
What is for sale? a ” platform ” no pipeline, no property, no superstar staff, it’s less than worthless?
Why buy it now?? Just wait until it’s in administration and pick through the bones. Who would want to buy a failing business anyway?!?
Like PB the only people who have made money are the guys at the top and that’s not from revenue but from short sighted investors.
What is certain is that this guy should never be allowed to run another business again, especially if staff are not paid. Where has all the money gone that was paid over by gullible “investors?”
Well, he has paid himself a very handsome salary.
And the cost per acquisition of client is massive.