iMotors Shuts Its Doors

Sacramento - iMotors.com announced today that effective immediately the
company is being closed.  An earlier morning report received at The Auto
Channel's northern California office about massive layoffs and closure was
then confirmed by Jen Parker, the iMotors.com Media Relations contact.

iMotors.com was founded to act as a broker in the sale of used vehicles to
consumers.  The presumed key benefit to consumers was iMotors
reconditioning of the vehicles before delivering them to their new owners.
To assist in this process, iMotors had build several facilities around the
country.  iMotors had also established sales outlets in most Costco
Warehouse stores.  During the last year, in an attempt to boost sales,
iMotors tried selling vehicles out of their inventory, as compared to just
acting as a broker.  Recently, iMotors had drastically scaled back
operations and closed several different geographic locations in an attempt
to cut losses and establish a workable focus. 

The company had received substantial funding, exceeding $100 million, from
venture capital companies such as Oak Investment Partners, Trinity
Ventures,  Rosewood Capital, and Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures.  iMotors
continuously racked up huge losses and was never profitable.  Fortunately,
for individual investors, the company was never able to launch an IPO
during the dotcom fever haydays.  

In January of this year, Adam Simms, the company's founder, had been
replaced as CEO by Lloyd Ward, formerly Chairman and CEO of Maytag, Inc.  

As many as 300 people may be affected by the company's closing.  An unnamed
source reported that workers were not given any warning and will not be
receiving any  severance pay or benefits.

MJR