Oxygen breathes life into rejects
Internet investment group Oxygen Holdings took a novel turn today when it bought into an e-commerce company specialising in finding buyers for those piles of remaindered books you cannot imagine anyone paying good money for. In a move that should please anyone trying to shift copies of Norman Lamont's autobiography or B-list celebrities' dire thriller-writing efforts, the group is spending £250,000 on a 15% stake in Global Remainders.com.
Oxygen is chaired by Knutsford founder Michael Edelson and counts public relations guru Matthew Freud, Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth and Manchester United chief executive Martin Edwards among its investors.
Oxygen is spending £200,000 in cash and a further £50,000 in internet design consultancy to help Global Remainders.com gear make its thrust into a market Oxygen reckons is worth £5 billion a year.
After that it will move into where demand to clear surplus stock is highest. Target markets include calculators, computers and other personal electronics although, with Edwards among Oxygen's investors, Champions League semi-final videos are also a possibility.
"We are talking about anything that is excess and surplus stock," said Oxygen fund manager Paul Harris. "At the moment there are going to be two distinct sites, one called book remainders and the other stock remainders."
