QUESTION 4

"Unless we raise $20 million by midnight, boo.com is dead" So said boo.com CEO Ernst Malmsten, on May 18th 2000. Half the investment was raised, but this was too little, too late, and at midnight, less than a year after its launch, Boo.com closed. The headlines in the Financial Times, the next day read: "Boo.com collapses as Investors refuse funds; Online Sports retailer becomes Europe's first big Internet casualty". The boo.com case remains a valuable case study for all types of businesses, since it doesn't only illustrate the challenges of managing E-commerce for a clothes retailer, but rather highlights failings in E-commerce strategy and management that can be made in any type or organization.

a) In light of the above analyse the key success factors for e-business. (10 Marks)

b) If boo.com had entered in an alliance with its partners it would have survived. Discuss push factors of entering in an alliance.