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Technology Stocks : PCW - Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (1078)	4/13/2001 11:56:52 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

Sweet smell of success deserts digital odour investors An ambitious start-up that had planned to bring the sense of smell to computing, shut down Wednesday when backers apparently tired of smelling burning cash. DigiScents Inc, a developer of technology that would have equipped computers to create odours on command was unable to secure new funding from earlier investors, including Pacific Century CyberWorks, the company said. Oakland, California-based DigiScents, which had been developing a hardware and software platform for producing digital smells, shut down on Wednesday, a quiet end for a company launched amid fanfare in 1999. Funded with some $20 million -- half from Pacific Century CyberWorks -- privately-held DigiScents had been working with Web sites, media companies and consumer product makers to bring to market its iSmell platform for interactive media such as video games. The idea behind odour-producing interactive media was to create a more lifelike experience for users. DigiScents had deals with 5,000 Web site, software and video game developers to eventually use the iSmell platform, which was nearing the manufacturing stage when investors cut off funding, the company said. "None of our investors could provide capital," a DigiScents spokesman told Reuters. DigiScents chief executive Joel Bellenson said the tight funding climate made pitching the unconventional start-up to investors a hard sell. "We don't fit very easily into what people are funding," Bellenson told Reuters. DigiScents' biggest investor, Pacific Century CyberWorks, is facing financial problems of its own. The Hong Kong-based telecom and Internet concern's shares have collapsed since the company's initial public offering last year. Pacific Century CyberWorks' American depositary receipts ended trading on Tuesday at $3.59, down from a 52-week high of $20. Last month, the company said it lost $886 million in 2000. According to a Pacific Century CyberWorks statement, the company invested $10 million for a 12.5 percent stake in DigiScents in February 2000. DigiScents' spokesman said that the company, though shuttered, will continue to license its technology. DigiScents president Dexster Smith said he and co-founder Bellenson also will continue to try to raise money. "We're basically trying to position ourselves for a relaunch," Smith said. special.scmp.com