The company is currently pursuing two major strategies for growth. First, the Dove brothers are bringing the corporate-auction culture to parts of the world where it doesn't have much history -- places like Japan. Second, they are continuing the company's decades-old campaign to convince businesses that auctions aren't just for bankruptcy anymore.
"We're just now getting to the point where it's not embarrassing for successful companies to have an auction," Ross Dove says. "We tell companies that it's smart to do industrial garage sales one, two, or even three times a year, and to broadcast them to a worldwide audience over the Web. Every company has underperforming assets." DoveBid's auction calendar for 2002 includes such names as Fujitsu, Lockheed Martin, and Motorola.
The return to reality is paying off. DoveBid ended 2001 with a profitable quarter and set a new record for annual revenue, topping $100 million. The company plans to conduct about 350 auctions this year, and there's new talk of an IPO. "We used to feel like we didn't have the sizzle of the Internet-only marketplaces," says Kirk Dove. "But we've realized that you can live without sizzle so long as you keep customers happy. That's one thing that hasn't changed at all since my grandfather ran the business."
Learn more about DoveBid on the Web (www.dovebid.com). For a Web-exclusive article about the art of bidding smart, click here.
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
