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Home Interiors and Gifts, the Dallas Based home good company that has had its fair share of financial troubles lately, has just been purchased by Home and Garden Party.

We had first reported about Home and Garden’s problems back in September when the company sent out a warning to employees.

Home and Garden Party, founded in 1996 in Marshall, Texas, has become a leader in the direct sales industry over the last decade. The company, founded by Penny and Steven Carlile purchased the assets of the U.S., Canadian and Puerto Rican assets of Home Interiors and Gifts last Thursday.

Carlile was pleased with the acquisition and the potential for success the joining of the two companies will have in the future. “Home Interiors has a storied history in the direct sales business for the past 51 years and has been a leader in this business for much of that time,” said Steve Carlile. “We’re very pleased to join forces with them going forward.”

Home Interiors was forced to file Chapter 11 to reorganize the company’s business and restructure its debt. Robin Crossman, the high profile CEO who was brought in last year to save the company released a statement regarding the announcement saying, “I am so proud of the Home Interiors field and the dedication they have to the heritage of Mary Crowley” (the company’s founder).

Penny and Steve Carlile issued a joint statement regarding the future of the two companies, “With all the necessary funds in reserve to complete the transaction, we can quickly and effectively assure the consultants of Home Interior that we’re committed to protecting the legacy of Mary Crowley and Home Interiors by building on the solid foundation that Home and Garden Party has enjoyed.”

The company will remain headquartered in Marshall. All parties involved hope that the acquisition will result in more jobs in the community in the coming months.

No word on what happens to the company’s status as part of the Direct Selling Association now that the company has been taken over.

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This week, the Utah Supreme court heard arguments from a group of investors who are challenging a ruling that dismissed a case they had filed in 2006 and 2007 against six of the founding members of XanGo, LLC.

The investors, identified in documents as Angel Investors, LLC and as “a few neighbors and friends” are a group of friends and neighbors who say they pooled together their savings to invest in the nutritional juice company. Apparently, the Angel Investors grew concerned about the way the founders were spending money.

The legal issue that the justices will consider is whether 4th District Judge Fred Howard rightfully dismissed the case and correctly applied Utah Rules of Civil Procedure when the case was originally brought before a judge.

While original court documents concerning the complaints are sealed, the attorney for the investors, Mary Anne Wood, said the investors “became concerned by evidence of extravagant lifestyle and compensation” of the six founders — Aaron Garrity, Bryan Davis, Gary Hollister, Gordon Morton, Joseph Morton and Kent Wood. Investors, uneasy with the usage of investor funds began questioning spending. It was then that XanGo’s founding members apparently began buying minority interest from the original investors by taking loans from XanGo, instead of the company buying back the interests. The investors want more of the profits distributed to them.

14% percent of the company is owned by minority investors, the remaining 86% percent is controlled by the six founding members. The Angel Investors who brought forth the suit apparently only own 1% percent of the company at most.
The suit was originally dismissed when it was ruled that the Angel investors did not represent the other minority investors, and those other founding members signed affidavits saying that they did not wish to be involved in the suit.

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In the wake of the announcement that third quarter profits have plummeted for online travel site, YTB, comes the announcement that the company has decided to mix some things up in their management team.

The company announced this week that they have promoted J. Kim Sorensen to Vice Chairman and Andrew Cauthen to President. 

Sorenson, who was previously president of YTB International, will remain President and Chief Executive of the company’s subsidiary, YTB Travel Network. 

Cauthen joined YTB since 2004 as the company’s Chief Operating Officer and then moved up to serve as President of YourTravelBiz in 2006. Cauthen was then named COO of YTB International in January 2008.

YTB has been hit pretty hard these last few months, not only have their profits plummetted almost 90% percent, but they’re being investigated for illegal practices in two different states, they’ve had to lay people off and just yesterday came word that they had to sell an office building and their learjet.  Hopefully these reassignments will shake things up a bit and get the company going in the right direction. 

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YTB International Inc., has just released their financial results for the third quarter, and not surprisingly, the company did not do well.

Currently, the online travel agency which uses independent sales reps to sell travel packages, is under investigation by two different state attorney generals, in Illinois and California, for allegedly operating a pyramid scheme.

Corporate filings (YTBLA: OTC) show pretty meager earnings for the third quarter, showing a profit of only $288,000 in the three months ending September 30th. That is a huge decline from the same quarter last year when the company raked in over $2 million dollars in profit.

Filing with the SEC show that while revenue grew, so did its operating expenses which climbed 13 percent this year. All total, net loss for the nine months ending September 30th was $3.4 million dollars.

“While we are disappointed by the reduction in our net income, we are also aware that much of the softness we are seeing is reflective of both an industry-wide trend and a difficult comparison to last year’s explosive growth,” company CEO Scott Tomer said Monday. “In the face of a looming recession, growing companies face the difficult choice of either cutting back on marketing efforts to save on expenses, or increasing these efforts in order to capture the increasingly selective customer,” he added

The company said that it plans to help raise cash by selling some of their assets, including an office building in Edwardsville as well as the company’s Learjet.

The YTB stock has gotten hammered this year.  From a high of over $4 to where it sits today at around $0.33, the company’s issues continue to mount as concerns about the ongoing lawsuits and financial situation continue to plague them.

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