Auctionata announced in a statement last week that “sufficient funds for maintaining the going concern could not be found”. Insolvency proceedings began in January and the German-based parent company had already separated from its subsidiary firms, Paddle8 in the US and Value- MyStuff in the UK, which it says have both been sold and “will continue to operate”.
In a ‘statement of proposal’, the London-based administrator ReSolve Partners said that the firm’s UK operation, Paddle8 Auctionata Limited, had been struggling to meet its costs since incurring a financial loss from organising an event known as ‘London Week’ in the autumn of 2016.
In Germany, around 30-40 of Auctionata’s 170 employees will stay on through the winding- up process, while Paddle8 confirmed to ATG that it has made lay-offs after the firm’s management “completed a buyback of the brand in February, backed by private capital”.
A Paddle8 spokesman said: “We will continue to operate offices in New York, LA, London and Hong Kong.”
