Jason Goldberg

Multiple sources have confirmed that Fab is in talks to sell to PCH International for $15 million, and possibly as much as $50 million, in a half cash and half stock deal. Contractual agreements are in the very early stages between the two companies. If it does happen, we've been told that some assets will be rolled into Fab founder Jason Goldberg's new furniture design company Hem and the rest will be taken over by PCH. Fab was once a Silicon Valley darling, raising $165 million (at a $1 billion valuation) just over a year ago. 

E-commerce brand Fab.com has been in sale discussions with various interested parties, as CEO Jason Goldberg revealed. Industry experts have predicted that the flash-sale company will sell for between $100 million to $150 million, which is a large decrease from the $1 billion valuation Fab.com was given last June. 

Struggling e-commerce site Fab has gone shopping. The once high-flying company, which has recently suffered a series of pitfalls including a round of layoffs last month, announced Wednesday that it's buying One Nordic Furniture Co., a retailer known as the "luxury Ikea" with operations in Finland and Sweden. The deal is the next step in chief executive Jason Goldberg's strategy to design, market and sell private-label goods rather than rely on the products of other brands. 

In an attempt to set the tone for a new, restructured and a hopefully one day resurrected Fab.com, CEO Jason Goldberg sent around a memo that's less rally-the-troops and more "you're lucky to be here." Titled "It's a f***ing startup. Why are you here?," the note, also posted on his personal website, continues to remind his employees that they could, very realistically, lose their jobs. "I can say with confidence that Fab will win or lose based on our ability to assemble and manage the right people for right now," he writes.

Fab's management is aware of its image problem. They read the same stories about the home design site that everyone else does: The ones about Fab being in a "death spiral" and CEO Jason Goldberg being a "demolition man" whose resume looks like a "history of mistakes." But those articles tell only half the story. Fab's top brass — its CEO, COO, a board member and its chief HR officer (and other sources, speaking privately) — say that Fab has been treated unfairly by the press, and that most of the criticism misses the point: Fab is financially stable.