Tuesday, Feb 10, 2004    Text size: 

InterCept purchased iBill in 2002 and got off to an immediately rocky start after seeing its stock value nosedive at the time of purchase.

Some industry analysts attributed the crash to shareholder disapproval at seeing their mainstream company align itself with a company that serviced the porn industry.

According to reports, the relationship between iBill and InterCept never fully recovered and InterCept's latest plan for the billing company is to take it private by selling it to IPS Chief Executive Officer John Perry, select members of the company's management team, and a third party provider of merchant payment services for both traditional and web-based merchants.

InterCept has not yet revealed the identity of the third party payment service company who is involved in the purchase, but the pending management buyout is being perceived as a positive step for iBill after two difficult years.

The asking price for iBill is in the range of $37.4 million, the company announced Wednesday. The purchase is expected to be concluded by the end of the month and will include cash, a promissory note, and assumed liabilities.

According to speculation, any number of scenarios could occur for iBill at this juncture, including a massive marketing boost to regain market share within the adult industry.

Earlier this month, John Thorpe, the regional sales manager for iBill since 1999, left the company and was rehired by industry rival Epoch.