Quepasa
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| Quepasa Corporation | |
|---|---|
| Type | Public (Nasdaq: QPSA) |
| Founded | Phoenix, Arizona (1997) |
| Headquarters | West Palm Beach, Florida |
| Key people | Jeffery Valdez, Chairman, John Abbott CEO Michael Matte, CFO Louis Bardov, CTO Fernando Ascencio, SVP |
| Industry | Social Media |
| Employees | ~75 (2006) |
| Website | www.quepasa.com |
Quepasa is a US-based Spanish and English online community with content and services relating to Hispanics.
Contents |
[edit] About
Headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida (with offices in Scottsdale, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Mexico), Quepasa Corporation owns Quepasa.com, one of the world's largest, bicultural & bilingual Latino Social Networks on-line. Quepasa.com, along with sister site Corazones.com serves its users in the U.S., Mexico, Latin America and the world both in Spanish and English.
[edit] History
Quepasa Corporation, one of the pioneers of Internet en Español, was founded by technology entrepreneur Jeffrey Peterson in 1997. The Company is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
In 1998, Quepasa was successful in raising $20 million from private investors, including television broadcaster Telemundo and Phoenix sports mogul Jerry Colangelo. Noteworthy personalities joined the Board of Directors, including Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres and former CNBC Chief Business Commentator William Siedman.
Quepasa had its Initial Public Offering on the Nasdaq Stock Market on June 24, 1999, selling 4.6 million shares at $12 per share. By July of 1999, Quepasa had raised over $100 million. Quepasa shares registered billions of dollars per month in trading volume on Nasdaq during the dot-com Internet boom.
[edit] Growth
In 1999, Quepasa invested tens of millions of dollars in thousands of outdoor Spanish-language billboard advertisements, network radio promotions and various national television brand-building campaigns featuring the music of its then-corporate spokesperson and investor, Gloria Estefan.
At the peak of the Internet boom in the year 2000, market research firm Cheskin Research ranked Quepasa as the most popular destination for U.S. Hispanics, despite costly marketing campaigns by Starmedia and Terra. Shares of Quepasa rose on Nasdaq to a market value of $400 million dollars at their peak.
[edit] Management controversy
Shortly after Quepasa went public in late 1999, Quepasa founder Jeffrey Peterson was ousted by a new CEO.
During the .com bust of 2001, Quepasa shares lost practically all of their value on Nasdaq. When existing management attempted to liquidate company assets, Peterson gained control of Quepasa through a successful hostile takeover and proxy fight. He was subsequently reinstated as Chairman and CEO, the title he has held since late 2002.
[edit] Events
- June, 1997: Quepasa is incorporated as Internet Century Inc. The business is initially operated as a high end web applications developer, with offices in Las Vegas, Nevada and Los Angeles, California.
- December 18, 1998: Changes name to Quepasa.com, Inc.
- June 24, 1999: Quepasa goes public on Nasdaq, selling 4 million shares at $12. [1]
- August 2, 1999: New Quepasa CEO Gary Trujillo fires founder Peterson, accusing him of starting a competing venture. [2]
- September, 1999: Quepasa signs Gloria Estefan as its spokesperson, partner, and investor [3]
- March, 2000: Gateway Computer invests $10 million in Quepasa [4]
- April 17, 2000: Cheskin Research ranks Quepasa as #1 for U.S. Hispanics online
- June, 2002: Founder Jeffrey Peterson again gains control of Quepasa through a takeover, reorganizing the business [5]
- March, 2006: Billionaire investor Richard Scott acquires stake in Quepasa [6]
