Author Topic: DigitalRailRoad runs out of steam in 24 hours....... (Read 7086 times)

Adeptris · « **on:** October 28, 2008, 15:21 »

Not sure if anyone here uses DigitalRailroad, they have gone under and have a notice when you log in saying that you have only 24 hours before they pull the plug, so if anyone here has any images over on DigitalRailRoad it is time to pull them, or they could get sold with the servers who knows?

David

stormchaser · « **Reply #1 on:** October 28, 2008, 15:28 »

Quote from: Adeptris on October 28, 2008, 15:21

Not sure if anyone here uses DigitalRailroad, they have gone under and have a notice when you log in saying that you have only 24 hours before they pull the plug, so if anyone here has any images over on DigitalRailRoad it is time to pull them, or they could get sold with the servers who knows?

David

Yes, I saw a "could be sooner than you think" post on one of the photo business blogs yesterday.

Lee Torrens · « **Reply #2 on:** October 28, 2008, 16:12 »

They've updated all parts of their website now with this message in plain text:

Quote

October 28, 2008

To our valued Members and Partners:

We deeply regret to inform you that Digital Railroad (DRR) has shut down.

On October 15th we reported that the company had reduced its staff and was aggressively pursuing additional financing and/or a strategic partner. Unfortunately, those efforts were unsuccessful. Therefore Digital Railroad has been forced to close all operations.

Digital Railroad has attracted a loyal set of customers and partners, and we regret this unfortunate outcome. Without sufficient long-term financial support, the business had become unsustainable.

Thank you for allowing us to serve the photographic community these past few years.

All questions pertaining to claims should be addressed to:

Digital Railroad, Inc
c/o Diablo Management Group
1452 N. Vasco Road, #301
Livermore, CA 94551

Publicly stating that they needed funding and not getting it 'appears to be' another no-confidence vote for the traditional sector of the market. Who is going to provide DRR funding when JI sells for $96mil?

johngriffin · « **Reply #3 on:** October 28, 2008, 22:27 »

wow unacceptable. completely unacceptable. that is an absolute nightmare of a situation. looks like all deals to sell the company to PS fell through and no one wants to put any more money into the company.

leaf · « **Reply #4 on:** October 29, 2008, 02:53 »

Vincint Laforet wrote a strongly worded blog post about the subject...

[Vincent Laforet]

Adeptris · « **Reply #5 on:** October 29, 2008, 03:44 »

Quote from: leaf on October 29, 2008, 02:53

Vincint Laforet wrote a strongly worded blog post about the subject...

[Vincent Laforet]

This was my reply on his blog:

lets be fair to DRR staff and look at things from a different perspective.

DRR staff would not just shut down the site if they had a choice, and I would think that they would have given more notice and wound down if they had a choice, but if you turn up to work just to be told your job has gone what choices do you have.

The liqiudators, receivers and maybe outsite hosting companies would want to stop any more financial drain to give the best return in the $ to the DDR suppliers, and are the ones that would have taken this action without a thought to subscribers, we do not know if the DRR servers were leased through another company, if they are shut out of thier offices, and a fact of life is if there is no money to pay the bills the plug gets pulled.

We are all in the hands of many service providers, for our daily life, water, power, banks, insurance, mortgages, credit, and also our virtual life, stock images, websites we own and use, email etc:, and we just assume that these companies are sound and we have to put our trust in them, what else can we do.

David

leaf · « **Reply #6 on:** October 29, 2008, 04:57 »

well I guess i don't know much about how closing a company works, but from past experience on the user end - what separated them closing from Lucky Oliver closing. Lucky Oliver gave several weeks notice that they were closing and told people to cash out if they wanted and gave good warning about what was going to happen.

It seems a site like DigitalRailRoad was even more important to the users and I am curious why they couldn't have given a little more notice. How much more work or cost is it to keep a site online an extra few days or weeks.

Adeptris · « **Reply #7 on:** October 29, 2008, 05:52 »

Hi Leaf,
I think the difference is who was driving the company, Lucky Oliver and PhotoShelter Collection did not get themself in the same position as DRR and pulled the plug themself, the receivers were not called in, and they were able to operate a timely withdrawal from the market.

But I think that DRR were hanging on in hope for a buy-out from another site or new venture capital, and left it all to late to announce the failure, so were forced into receivership and liqudation, the job of the liquidators is to save as much as they can to sell off and pay thier fees and give something back to the creditors, so another month of expence was not really an option once all avenues of a rescue package are exhausted, the liquidators would have pulled the plug and this would have been outside of control by DRR staff.

David

stormchaser · « **Reply #8 on:** October 29, 2008, 14:33 »

Have to agree with Vince's blog article in saying this is Shameful. There could be even more backlash on this. DRR had some guys knocking down some serious cash. And it looks like many migration attempts to PhotoShelter were in vain. I think we'll be hearing more regarding the wrath of DRR users..

RacePhoto · « **Reply #9 on:** October 29, 2008, 15:23 »

Quote from: Lee Torrens on October 28, 2008, 16:12

Publicly stating that they needed funding and not getting it 'appears to be' another no-confidence vote for the traditional sector of the market. Who is going to provide DRR funding when JI sells for $96mil?

JI sold for under 30% of the 2008 estimated value. Talk about no confidence all around.

As previously reported and blogged and discussed:

October 15, 2008
Digital Railroad Likely Being Liquidated

They lost 15 million dollars and we were warned two weeks ago. One person took the time to reply here, that DRR was ripping off the artists by making a bunch of sales and closing before payout? 15 Million lost!

People sat on their hands and left their valuable collections online. Doesn't everyone use the online storage as the third backup? It's certainly not the primary! Now the same people are complaining because they can't migrate or download their images, because of the volume of traffic. Well DUH! Must be a very big club for people who didn't heed the warnings?

Sorry but it's frustrating to read all the whining and see the complaints because someone else just lost their investment, is going out of business, and how they should lose some more, just so the people who didn't plan ahead are depending on them for backup?

If the owners / shareholders / investors in DRR were making money, they wouldn't be closing it down!

Original post, and I agree.

Quote from: Adeptris on October 28, 2008, 15:21

Not sure if anyone here uses DigitalRailroad, they have gone under and have a notice when you log in saying that you have only 24 hours before they pull the plug, so if anyone here has any images over on DigitalRailRoad it is time to pull them, or they could get sold with the servers who knows?

David

stormchaser · « **Reply #10 on:** October 29, 2008, 15:37 »

Good points. You said

"People sat on their hands and left their valuable collections online."

Very true. Some admitted on comments this was their only backup. How stupid. And one very frustrated post from a guy on one of the business blogs who did all his keywording through DRR. Now how stupid is that?

leaf · « **Reply #11 on:** October 31, 2008, 17:57 »

a new update...

looks like someone is going to buy DRR

http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/drr-letter-of-intent

madelaide · « **Reply #12 on:** October 31, 2008, 19:16 »

I would be suspicious of the negotiation. "Someone" purchased Totally Photos and the site was never back to operation ever again. The name and country was even disclosed, but what that I was only able to find a maestro of the Sydney Opera House.

Regards,
Adelaide

stormchaser · « **Reply #13 on:** November 01, 2008, 11:40 »

Can't understand why someone would want to buy a train wreck unless they are after the web architecture (code) and server assets. Right now, DRR has alienated do many paid subscribers I doubt that any attempt of a revival of the service as it was would get the subs back.

Maybe Getty can get it at a fire sale price and incorporate an archive service into their offerings. At least there would then be some amount of confidence in the brand name.

Edit addition:

Here's is a reasonable speculative article on PDN

http://www.pdnpulse.com/2008/10/is-newscom-about-to-acquire-digital-railroads-assets.html

RacePhoto · « **Reply #14 on:** November 03, 2008, 00:52 »

Which leads to another company that purchased Newscom.

Salt Lake City, Utah–June 29, 2007–Mainstream Data announced today that it has acquired global content provider Newscom, LLC, from its prior owner, a 50/50 joint venture between Tribune Media Services, a subsidiary of Tribune Company, and The McClatchy Company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

http://www.mainstreamdata.com/Default.aspx?p=140

Talk about tangled web?

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Author Topic: DigitalRailRoad runs out of steam in 24 hours....... (Read 7086 times)

Adeptris

stormchaser

Lee Torrens

johngriffin

leaf

Adeptris

leaf

Adeptris

stormchaser

RacePhoto

stormchaser

leaf

madelaide

stormchaser

RacePhoto

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