Capsuleer Jump Clone Service to be Auctioned Off

Rens, Heimatar. Estel Arador Corp Services [EACS] will be be sold to the highest bidder this week. The corporation has been speculatively valued, based on past donations from satisifed customers, at between six and eight billion ISK; with no value placed on one thousand extant 'novelty' shares.

Current CEO and founder Estel Arador told the Interstellar Correspondents that "due to changing personal circumstances" he would no longer be able to take an active hand in the day to day administration of the business.

In a further statement he justified his decision to sell to the highest bidder: "What would the alternative be? That I give away a business worth billions for free?" he said. "Most donations I've received mentioned [they] were a 'thanks' for running the service. The money I'll be getting from the sale could be seen as my compensation for thinking of creating this service in the first place."

Arador also explained why he had decided on a sealed bid format: "Making a valuation of the business is very hard, since it is unique and has no assets. EACS has a superb reputation: It is unclear if or how that should be valued. That's why I opted for a sealed-bid auction, so that all interested parties can make a bid according to their own valuation."

Arador expects to have no input on the future direction of EACS: "I do hope the new owner of EACS will continue it as a free service for everyone. However I cannot sell the service and at the same time make demands on how the service would be run..."

Some public shares, originally sold by EACS for one million ISK each, remain in private hands. However these are not and never were 'equity' shares. Arador explained that these shares would not have any bearing on the sale or the future operation of EACS: "Less than 1% of EACS shares have been sold to people who wanted something tangible; the shares are memorabilia. When they were sold, it was made very clear that having the shares would not give any benefits at all."

The auction, which is already underway, is open to all: "There is no reserve, no minimum bid, no buyout. Anyone can make a bid according to their own valuation. I don't want to say too much about what range I expect the offers to be in, as I don't want to affect the ongoing auction, but the fact that I ask for a 200M deposit and that bids must be listed in billions with 0.1 increments, will give an indication."

When asked why he had chosen to disregard calls for the service to be given over to EVE University or for a team of public volunteers to be entrusted with the day-to-day running of EACS, Arador made it clear he simply has no desire to continue, in any capacity, managing the company: "I have considered this option. However it would mean that it would be my responsibility to select this manager or workers, to monitor their actions, and to replace them if they quit or fail to live up to expectation. So it wouldn't really make my involvement any less, it would just change the nature of my involvement."

GalNet References

EACS - Free jumpclones : 1092 stations
WTA: Estel Arador Corp Services (the jumpclone service corporation)

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