NEEDHAM, Mass.--()--FTI Consulting, Inc. (“FTI”), in its capacity as Trustee for the AC Liquidating Trust, will auction the intellectual property assets of Advanta Corp.—a historical power house in the financial industry—and certain of its former affiliates and subsidiaries (“Advanta”), on September 24, 2012. After receiving expressions of interest to acquire Advanta’s intellectual property portfolio, FTI announced that it retained Hilco Streambank, a leading intellectual property advisory firm, to run an auction sale aimed at maximizing the value of Advanta’s intellectual property. The auction will be conducted on Hilco Streambank’s online auction platform, Hilcoipauctions.com.
Jack Hazan, EVP at Hilco Streambank said “this is a significant opportunity for interested buyers – whether they are new entrants seeking recognition in the US market or current companies seeking to expand their audience. Beyond the 40 plus registered trademarks available, Advanta will also sell more than 600 domain names and 5 copyrights”. The trademarks that will go up for auction include the Advanta name as well as marks relating to some of Advanta's non-core businesses. “The ability to acquire such a famous name in the financial industry is incredible”, said Hazan. The domain names include advanta.com, hundreds of Advanta related domains as well as numerous generic domain names including theblob.com, mybeautycard.com and b4b.com.
Prior to its 2009 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Advanta was one of the largest issuers of business credit cards in the United States. When it operated its consumer credit card line, Advanta had seven million credit card holders. Advanta’s nationally recognized name—well known for everything from business and consumer credit cards to insurance, leasing, and mortgage lending—is an attractive asset to a multitude of entities.
Hilco Streambank’s Hazan went on to say “given the high level of awareness and recognition of the Advanta brand name the interest level is very significant and a highly competitive bidding process is expected at auction.”
The auction will be conducted on Hilco Streambank's new online auction platform www.hilcoipauctions.com beginning in late August and will conclude in mid-September. Interested parties should visit the web site or contact Hilco Streambank.
About Hilco Streambank
Hilco Streambank (www.hilcostreambank.com) is an advisory firm, specializing in the marketing, sale and valuation of intangible assets for businesses at all stages. Hilco Streambank is part of the Hilco Organization (www.hilcotrading.com), a financial services and operational advisory company based in Northbrook, Illinois.
Hilco Streambank identifies, preserves, and extracts value for clients through the application of experience, diligence and creativity. Recent transactions include the sale of the DiVX patent portfolio for Circuit City, as well as brand names, Internet domain names, customer files and other IP for Borders, Robb & Stucky Furniture, Berkline/BenchCraft and Tavern on the Green. Additionally, Hilco Streambank provides intangible asset valuation services to stakeholders in a variety of contexts including compliance and reporting, lending, and for the resolution of disputes. Hilco Streambank also provides advisory services on intangible asset value maximization strategies and liquidity-generating options. Headquartered in Needham, MA with offices in New York, NY and Chicago, IL, Hilco Streambank.