Blum buys back Buy.com

Scott Blum completed his takeover of struggling e-tailer Buy.com on Tuesday. Blum, who founded Buy.com in June 1997, bought the company for $23.6 million or 17 cents per share. As a result of the merger, Buy.com will become a private company and will no longer trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board. Shares of the Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based e-tailer, which were delisted from the Nasdaq national market in August, closed down 0.3 cents to 16.8 cents per share.

Buy.com, which never posted a profitable quarter as a public company, has seen its revenue and cash plunge in recent quarters. Blum, who resigned as chairman and chief executive of Buy.com in 1999, immediately before the company filed for an initial public offering, agreed to buy the company in August and provided it with a $9 million line of credit. Earlier this year, Buy.com laid off 40 percent of its staff and saw the resignation of its chief executive, chief financial officer and two board members.