January 2003

Commerce One, the business-to-business e-commerce giant, has sold its Commerce One.net online marketplace to rival operator eScout in a deal that is said to have created the world's biggest e-marketplace.

The deal covers Commerce One.net's marketplace operations, managed applications services and content operations, along with trading partner contracts; interoperability agreements; hosting and managed services contracts; technology and equipment; and certain intellectual property.

The two companies have both focused on supply-chain functions in their online marketplaces, and are therefore seen as a good fit.

Commerce One.net's marketplace connects 38 Fortune 2000 buying organisations with over 1,500 suppliers. In the first three quarters of 2002, Commerce One.net processed transactions involving over $1.5 billion of spend.

Following the disposal, Commerce One says it will be able to focus more acutely on what it calls its core initiative, the delivery of a new collaborative platform, Conductor; and on Web services-based supplier relationship management solutions.

The company continues to invest in e-marketplaces such as Exostar and Eutilia, Europe's utilities marketplace. It also provides e-procurement solutions to customers such as Coors, Siemens and PwC through Commerce One Source, which delivers visibility and control across the strategic sourcing process, and Buy.