Vancouver’s Marqui headed for the Deadpool?

It’s official – Vancouver-based content management provider Marqui, Inc. is in receivership and a long list of creditors may be left high and dry. You may remember Marqui banner ads running on Techvibes up until the end of March. Unfortunately we never got paid, so I wasn’t surprised to get a package in the mail today from their appointed receiver.

Founded in 2000 by Thierry LaVasseur (now with email2), privately-held Marqui – originally Maestro CMS Corp. – employs over 50 designers, developers, salespeople and has an impressive client list 300 strong.

Some of you may remember Marqui from their controversial blogosphere campaign in 2004. Marqui garnered a huge amount of publicity by paying bloggers to write about them. The program was successful in generating buzz (and VC interest – keep reading) and kicked off a debate among bloggers about whether it was ethical to accept payment for posts. Forbes Magazine both took notice, mentioning Marqui in their cover stories on blogging.

Founder LeVasseur landed Marqui’s first venture capital round in 2003 from adding $4.2 Million to the mix. The second round brought total investment in Marqui to $11 million.

Disclosure: I did NOT get paid to write this post.