InfoSources, which Sapet had started as an Internet service provider in 1995,[2] had branched increasingly into content creation since 1998, and had purchased the magazine publishers Pressimage [fr] and Freeway in April 2000. As a result, its holdings included a number of youth-oriented magazines and web portals, such as ZoneJeuX.[4] As part of InfoSources' merger with Belgacom, its content division was split off as Ixo, which successfully went public in December 2000.[5][6]
Ixo became the French publisher of Rolling Stone in 2002.[7] That same year, Ixo began a rebranding effort to target "urban machismo" in its publications.[8] Following a years-long series of setbacks that Stratégies described as a "descent into hell",[9] Ixo filed for bankruptcy in January 2004.[10] Its magazine publishing division was sold off piecemeal to companies such as Cyber Press Publishing and Tests Group as the year progressed. Because it was sold in pieces, over 100 Ixo employees were laid off.[11] The liquidation of Ixo was announced in July 2004, after the firm was unable to find a buyer for the remainder of its business.[12]