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A judge presiding over two competing class action suits against online travel company, YTB has asked lawyers in each of the two suits to find a way to consolidate the cases.

U.S. District Judge, G. Patrick Murphy told each of the sides last week that he would not hear two parallel cases simultaneously.”We’re not going to be hearing two cases at one time,” the judge said. “It makes a lot of sense to file one complaint.”

The lawyers in each case were given two weeks to come together to figure out a way to come together into one suit. If there is no agreement reached in that time, Judge Murphy will issue an order of his own choosing.

The two suits, one filed in California and one in Illinois are seeking a total of over $100 million dollars in damages stemming from claims that YTB was operating an illegal pyramid scheme and defrauded their independent consultants out of millions of dollars.

Now the lawyers from each case must come together and figure out a way to consolidate the two cases. Not only do they have to choose the fairest way to represent all of those involved, but they must also figure out who will represent the former YTB consultants. The lawyers have also begun to bicker over who will be lead counsel. Even when and if the suits are consolidated, the earliest the two cases will come to trial will be 2010.

YTB of course said that whether there is one suit or two, they will defend themselves vigorously against all charges Jonathan S. Quinn, just one of YTB’s lawyers, said, “The firm has done nothing wrong. The agents were trained to make money by working at home. They could sell travel-related services, such as airline fare, or recruit others to sell travel services. There were two different opportunities to earn money, both valid.”

Pre trial motions in the case will be heard just after the first of the year.

This has been a rough year for the embattled company that continues to try and put 2008 behind them. With recent horrible third quarter results and the sell off of assets, the year can’t end sooner.

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Amway Global, formerly known in the United States as Quixtar, has announced that they have just integrated PayPal online onto its website.

The PayPal online payment method allows customers to pay using stored balances, their credit or debit cards and even their bank accounts to pay for items through their individual PayPal accounts. This is not only a more efficient method of payment, but is also more secure as it allows customers to pay without revealing any of their financial information.

Customers can now chose from almost 500 Amway products and services available online including cosmetics, skin care, home care and jewelry products and pay for them via PayPal online.

Amway Global reported sales last year of over $7.2 billion dollars, with availability in over 90 countries and territories around the world.

This latest move by Amway comes at a time when the company is agressively using more traditional marketing means in the US to attract new distributors and customers. In the past few months, the company has begun advertising in major magazines, newspapers and even using TV as a means to attract new attention to its brand and products - something typically not done by Network Marketing companies. The move seems to be paying off as the brand recognition for the company continues to rise.

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The bad news about the economy keeps getting worse, and although generally a slump in the economy creates somewhat of a boom within the Direct Sales Industry, several companies have taken a hit during the past few months. One of those company’s, Arbonne International has just announced that they were forced to lay off 95 workers from one of its largest facilities.

The California based skin care company told the employees that unfortunately there was not enough business and not enough work to keep everyone busy and employed.

A statement from a corporate representative stated, “We have made all reasonable efforts to treat the departing employees fairly, and wish them well.” The representative went on to say that although the Arbonne business remains strong, they felt it was in the company’s best interests to consolidate their workforce.

Employees, who were understandably upset with frustrated with not only the timing of the decision but also the fact that they say the received no warning from the company that there were problems. The company said that workers who were laid off will receive severance and other benefits.

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YTB International continues to sell off some of its assets to raise money after a disasterous year for the company both legally and financially.

The online travel company announced that they have finally found a buyer for its 1980 Learget 35A that they have been trying to get rid of for a few weeks now. After a deal the Espectra Aviation Inc fell through earlier in the month, YTB will sell the jet to Peterbridge LLC for $1,095,000. This is according to a recent filing with the SEC.  The interesting thing is if you try and find out any information about Peterbridge LLC you will find nothing.  What makes this a little odd is that YTB has a history of “relationships” with vendors and business deals that appear to be very incestuous.  Even a Google search of Peterbridge LLC returns nothing.

Earlier in the month, YTB sold its Edwardsville, ILL office building complete with all of their equipment for $1.5 million dollars to Prestige Management Services. Now the company plans to sell off another one of its buildings. WR Landing LLC will purchase 10 acres of land from YTB. The land is near its Madison County ILL headquarters. The money will come partially from cash and half through a noninterest bearing promissory note. By the way, WR Landing LLC is another company that you cant find any information on.

YTB recently announced terrible third quarter results which were no doubt related to two significant class action suits being brought against the company. Since the lawsuits were announced, YTB has rebuilt its management team, laid off employees, reported dismal earnings and now is selling off its assets. Hopefully the company will be able to pull themselves out of this, but if I worked for the travel company, I would keep a close eye on what is going on.

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