Commerce One sold its Commerce One.net business unit to purchasing company eScout late last year, in a move the company says will create the world's largest business-to-business e-commerce marketplace.
Both Commerce One and eScout customers will directly benefit from increased business services and access to a larger base of trading partners, says Commerce One.
The sale includes all three of Commerce One.net's lines of business: Marketplace Operations, Managed Applications Services and Content Operations. Also included in the deal are Commerce One's contracts, interoperability agreements, hosting and managed services contracts, as well as technology and equipment.
"eScout is a valued customer and partner who is committed to offering the scale and best-of-breed services our customers require," says Mark Hoffman, chairman and CEO of Commerce One.
"Our customers will continue to have easy access to thousands of e-commerce-ready trading partners through eScout, allowing them to realise the benefits of online trading immediately. Customers will also benefit from the breadth of services offered by the combination of the two marketplaces. This transaction makes sense for both our customers and our business as it will allow us to have an even sharper focus on our new Web services-based solutions, better enabling us to deliver on our core initiative to bring the highest quality products to our customers."
Michael Bosman, CEO of Commerce One in SA, says the deal will have no impact on the local market because local Commerce One clients are not using the Commerce One.net tools. "For local customers the deal will have no effect because the local install base is zero."
Bosman says some work has been done locally to ensure compatibility with Commerce One.net for customers who need to trade with Commerce One.net users, but adds that the demand has not been significant.
"The combination of Commerce One.net's clients, people and technology with our 25 000 customers, world-class service and fully-integrated purchasing solutions should provide both Commerce One.net customers and our existing eScout customers with new business opportunities and services," says Alexander Kemper, CEO of eScout.
As part of the transaction, Commerce One is increasing its equity ownership stake in eScout and will obtain a seat on eScout's board of directors. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2003.
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