Irvine Firms’ Aborted Merger Leads to Suit

2TheMart.com Inc. in Irvine said Wednesday it has filed a lawsuit alleging that GoToWorld.com Inc., also based in Irvine, wrongly terminated a merger agreement between the two electronic commerce companies.

In a press release, 2TheMart said it is seeking $100 million in its suit against GoToWorld, its parent company, LanguageForce Inc., and two officers. GoToWorld executives could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.

The suit alleges that GoToWorld wrongly fired more than 70 2TheMart employees, discontinued its Web site, converted $100,000 of its equipment and furnishings and failed to pay overhead expenses.

In October, GoToWorld scrapped the proposed merger but did not provide any details publicly. Last spring, 2TheMart had agreed to turn over an unspecified amount of cash to buy GoToWorld, an Internet site that pays members to surf and shop on the Web.

At the time, 2TheMart’s top two executives quit after its outside auditor resigned, citing a loss of confidence in management and a lack of adequate internal controls and management oversight.

2TheMart’s stock lost 9 cents Wednesday to close at 11 cents a share in over-the-counter trading.