Commerce One SA beats US namesake

By Bronwen Kausch, Media strategist, Innovative Media Productions

Johannesburg, 24 Jul 2001

E-marketplace company Commerce One South Africa has closed its books for the latest financial year in the black, while its international namesake has posted a net loss of over $2 billion.

Michael Bosman, CEO of Commerce One SA, says the company has experienced a good year, showing a profit despite the general downturn in IT spend experienced by many other companies.

Bosman points out that Commerce One SA is not owned by the Nasdaq-listed company, but is Commerce One`s sole distributor and regional MarketSite portal operator in Southern Africa.

Commerce One SA`s investors include black empowerment consortium Worldwide African Investments Holdings and investment group Calejero Holdings headed up by Mark Barnes.

While Bosman admits that it may be misconceived to have the same business name as a company which reported worse than expected second quarter results, he says Commerce One SA is not dependant on the US company for resources and therefore the reported loss will not impact the company`s operations.

"We have a solid diversified business which has turned a profit for the year and we are expecting a similar year next year," says Bosman.

California-based Commerce One Incorporated saw its revenues for the second quarter grow 61% to $101.3 million. However, the net loss for the current quarter was $2 068.3 million, or $9.02 per share, as compared with a net loss of $43.1 million, or $0.28 per share, for the corresponding quarter in 2000.

International analysts say the relationship Commerce One has with SAP and Microsoft will lessen the market`s reaction to the loss, giving investors confidence in the US company`s stability and future.

Bosman says that although Commerce One SA has a good relationship with SAP locally, the German enterprise resource planning company is eight times the size of Commerce One in SA, and consequently it would have its own agenda when approaching the market.

As far as Microsoft goes, Commerce One has announced the local availability of its e-commerce solutions on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server network operating system and the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database platform.

Bosman says the implementation of the Commerce One e-procurement offering for Sasol is well on track, with 1 600 users and six of the 22 Sasol business units connected.

"Some 3 000 transactions are being conducted via our implementation and this will increase to 4 000 by August."

Bosman says Commerce One SA will be looking to offer a more flexible and mature offering to local clients. He adds that the order book is looking strong for the next year.