June 1, 2001

RxMarketplace expires; incubator moves

LOUISVILLE ? RxMarketplace.com, a 2-year-old online vendor of pharmaceuticals that raked in more than $11 million from investors, has shut down its Web site, joining its brethren on the dot-com scrap heap.

Paul Caracciolo, founder and president of RxMarketplace and New Technology Partners, the incubator that housed RxMarketplace, said NTP is under new management in Chicago.

Caracciolo declined to comment on whether RxMarketplace would resume online sales, saying only that he is in negotiations regarding the company. The Web sites for both companies, www.rxmarketplace.com and www.newtechpartners.com, no longer exist.

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The phone recording at RxMarketplace’s headquarters in Louisville declares its mail box is full. RxMarketplace employed about 30 people, and New Technology Partners employed about five before the move to Chicago. Both were housed at 500 S. Arthur St.

New Technology Partners, an incubator for small technology businesses, and Caracciolo are also defendants in a wage lawsuit. Caracciolo declined to talk about either of the companies’ troubles.

Bahram Pourmand, executive vice president of Hughes Network Systems and an RxMarketplace board member, said he did not know whether RxMarketplace was in business officially or not. “They are on extremely slow activities, I can tell you that,” Pourmand said. “Our desire would be to continue it (RxMarketplace), but I can’t say whether we’ll be able to, or, if we have the right to.”

Germantown, Md.-based Hughes Network Systems owns the terminals that RxMarketplace used for satellite connectivity. The company invested about $4.5 million in RxMarketplace in May 2000. RxMarketplace was founded in 1999 with $7.2 million in angel funding.

Jim Fields, president of Pharmacy Services Providers Inc., an Ohio pharmaceutical company, wants to buy RxMarketplace’s 170 client systems , but hasn’t tendered an offer. “We had been working with Paul (Caracciolo),” Fields said. “But he was like, ?If you can give me a job, I can help you.’ I wasn’t real comfortable with that. We parted ways nicely after that.”

Fields said he was tipped off in early May that something was awry at RxMarketplace when satellite and computer systems promised to his company by Caracciolo didn’t arrive at a Florida trade show as planned. Fields called Caracciolo, who told him that the business had gone under. Fields’ company had worked with RxMarketplace for about nine months and had bought pharmaceutical products through them.

The wage suit against Caracciolo and New Technology Partners was filed in November by marketing consultants Nick Wollner and Gary Langstaff, owners of Crossroads Communications Inc., New York City.

The two claim they are owed wages and expense reimbursements for the more than six months they worked as equity partners.

A trial is set for February, according to Boulder County District Court records. Wollner and Langstaff, according to the lawsuit, were to be paid salaries of $150,000 and $200,000, respectively, beginning in April 2000. They also were to receive 25 percent interest in the business. They hired staff, managed the office and worked with potential portfolio companies.

The suit contends that Caracciolo abruptly terminated the men in July and refused to compensate them for their work. The suit seeks the wages, expense reimbursement of about $50,000 and the value of the equity options in the business.

Wollner and Langstaff went to work for New Technology Partners in December 1999 and agreed to defer wages until April 2000.

Caracciolo filed a response with the district court admitting that Wollner and Langstaff helped interview potential employees, met with several potential clients and funding sources; however, Caracciolo denied, in the response, that there was ever a concrete working relationship or any employment contract.

According to the suit, Wollner and Langstaff approached Caracciolo in April 2000 concerned that the company had raised too little capital to carry it forward. The men offered to take pay cuts, despite having yet received a salary, to help the company out. The offers were rejected and the original deal stood, according to the suit. Wollner and Langstaff claim they continued to work for New Technology Partners until Caracciolo terminated the relationship in July.Contact Alisha Jeter Rhines at (303) 440-4950 or research@bcbr.com.

LOUISVILLE ? RxMarketplace.com, a 2-year-old online vendor of pharmaceuticals that raked in more than $11 million from investors, has shut down its Web site, joining its brethren on the dot-com scrap heap.

Paul Caracciolo, founder and president of RxMarketplace and New Technology Partners, the incubator that housed RxMarketplace, said NTP is under new management in Chicago.

Caracciolo declined to comment on whether RxMarketplace would resume online sales, saying only that he is in negotiations regarding the company. The Web sites for both companies, www.rxmarketplace.com and www.newtechpartners.com, no longer exist.

The phone recording at RxMarketplace’s headquarters in Louisville declares its mail box…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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