Bolt.com, an online video sharing site, has posted a notice on its front page (now the only page), notifying all that, as of August 14, 2007, it has ceased all video sharing operations. The general assignment, or ‘assignment for the benefit of creditors’, executed by parent companies Net Revolution, Inc. and Bolt, Inc. means that, due to bankruptcy, Bolt.com’s assets will now be quickly sold off and the proceeds from liquidation paid to creditors.
Possibly related to this new development is the fact that in March of this year, Universal Music reached a settlement with Bolt.com — a copyright infringement suit — under the terms that Bolt.com would pay it (for damages) a huge portion of what it makes of its sale to another company GoFish, receive a “small licensing fee” and “a share of associated advertising revenue”, according to an FT.com report.
This isn’t the first time Universal has punished online video-sharing websites for copyright infringement; the video giant YouTube in September 2006 had to pay “tens of millions of dollars of company stock and also share advertising revenue and pay licensing fees”. It didn’t suffer a similar fate, though, thanks to search giant Google’s acquiring it the next month.
As the message on their site goes:
Please be advised that the operations of Bolt, Inc. and Bolt.com have ceased. Net Revolution, Inc. and Bolt, Inc. have executed an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors effective as of August 14, 2007. Please direct any creditor related questions or comments to the Assignee’s office to the attention of:
Development Specialists, Inc.
345 California Street
Suite 1150
San Francisco, California 94104-2664
This leaves us with one thing to wonder: what in the world is happening with the domain? You know, Bolt doesn’t make half as bad as a synonym for Rev2 
