Headline Feeds
i2 Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITWO) gained 3 9/16 to 60 1/8 Thursday after the company said it plans to buy Trade Services Holdings' content divisions for cash and stock.
i2, which provides business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce software, said it will acquire Trade Service Corp. and its ec-Content, Inc. affiliate in order to expand upon a pair of content acquisitions made earlier this year from Aspect Development and SupplyBase.
i2 said it will pay US$5 million in cash and issue 2.3 million of its common shares for the two companies, with the price dependent upon i2's trading price, and less liabilities of the companies being acquired.
"These additions further enhance Infinite Content's strategic vision of leading the market with the most comprehensive business-to-business (B2B) marketplace content solutions," i2 said.
Trade Service provides information on 5.2 million items to a subscriber base of 24,000 North American manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and contractors.
Ec-content, formed by Trade Service in July 1999, develops and manages content for digital marketplaces, e-procurement and supplier syndication.
"We believe the true value of e-marketplaces is predicated on the richness of information contained within them and the scope of choices and services offered," said Tim Leisman, executive vice president and general manager for Infinite Content. i2, he said, has been "extremely successful" in providing such services to companies including Boeing, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Siemens.
Anthony Dubreville, chief executive officer of Trade Service and ec-Content,
will continue to direct operations of the two companies after the
acquisition.
