Tradex Technologies

Last updated
Tradex Technologies Inc.
Industry B2B e-commerce
Founded1996;25 years ago (1996)
Founder Daniel Aegerter
DefunctMarch 8, 2000;21 years ago (2000-03-08)
FateAcquired by SAP Ariba
Headquarters Tampa

Tradex Technologies Inc. was a developer of Java-based B2B e-commerce software. It primarily operated in the industries of financial services, telecommunications, plastics, and foodservice. It offered a platform for vertical trading hubs, another for large enterprises, and a third for the distributor channel segment. The software used JavaBeans technology.

At the peak of the dot-com bubble in March 2000, SAP Ariba acquired Tradex for 19 million shares of Ariba stock, then worth $5.6 billion. [1]

The company received 60% of revenue from licensing its software, 30% from support services, and 10% from transaction fees. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone was the largest customer of the company and VerticalNet was also a customer. [2]

History

The company was founded by Daniel Aegerter as an Internet-based system for automating the purchase of computer peripherals for electronic publishing, which were distributed by his company, Dynabit. [2]

At first, in 1996, Tradex offered a wholesale marketplace for computer equipment, with 40 vendors offering 15,000 products. [3] In 1999, the company had 180 employees and 480 customers. [4]

In 1996, it received an award from the Gartner Group and InformationWeek as the best Internet B2B e-commerce solution. [5]

Revenues in 1998 were estimated to be less than $5 million. [6]

By September 1999, the company had raised $28 million from investors including Internet Capital Group, Sigma Partners, Apex Investment Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, First Analysis Corporation, Imlay Investments, and United Parcel Service. [6] [2]

In 1999, it was negotiation a headquarters move to Atlanta. It also had offices in Boston, Dallas, Tampa, San Francisco, Washington D.C., London and Tokyo. [6]

In December 1999, Ariba announced the acquisition of Tradex for stock then valued at $1.86 billion. [4] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

In January 2000, the company reached a reselling agreement with JD Edwards. [13]

On March 8, 2000, at the height of the dot com bubble, Ariba completed the acquisition. [1] Ariba shares had tripled since the announcement of the acquisition 4 months earlier and Tradex was therefore valued at $5.6 billion, making Daniel Aegerter a billionaire on paper.

Related Research Articles

Dot-com bubble Tech stock speculative craze, c. 1997-2003

The dot-com bubble was a stock market bubble caused by excessive speculation of Internet-related companies in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.

E-commerce is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. The term was coined and first employed by Dr. Robert Jacobson, Principal Consultant to the California State Assembly's Utilities & Commerce Committee, in the title and text of California's Electronic Commerce Act, carried by the late Commmittee Chairwoman Gwen Moore (D-L.A.) and enacted in 1984. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. E-commerce is in turn driven by the technological advances of the semiconductor industry, and is the largest sector of the electronics industry.

Sun Microsystems Defunct American computer hardware and software company

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was an American company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the Network File System (NFS), and SPARC microprocessors. Sun contributed significantly to the evolution of several key computing technologies, among them Unix, RISC processors, thin client computing, and virtualized computing. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982. At its height, the Sun headquarters were in Santa Clara, California, on the former west campus of the Agnews Developmental Center.

Inktomi Former software company based in California

Inktomi Corporation was a company that provided software for Internet service providers (ISPs). It was incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Foster City, California, United States. Customers included Microsoft, HotBot, Amazon.com, eBay, and Walmart.

UUNET

UUNET, founded in 1987, was one of the largest Internet service providers and one of the early Tier 1 networks. It was based in Northern Virginia and was one of the first commercial Internet service providers. Today, UUNET is an internal brand of Verizon Business.

BEA Systems

BEA Systems, Inc. was a company that specialized in enterprise infrastructure software products which was wholly acquired by Oracle Corporation on April 29, 2008.

Chemdex.com, later known as Ventro Corporation and then NexPrise, Inc., was a B2B e-commerce company that first operated an online marketplace for products related to the life sciences industry such as laboratory chemicals, enzymes, and equipment, but later expanded into a few other industries. It was notable for its $7 billion market capitalization during the dot-com bubble despite minimal revenues.

Commerce One, Inc. was a B2B e-commerce company that used online auctions to connect business to their suppliers. At the peak of the dot-com bubble, the company had a market capitalization of $21.5 billion.

KANA Software, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Verint Systems and provides on-premises and cloud computing hosted customer relationship management software products to many of the Fortune 500, mid-market businesses and government agencies.

AboveNet was a provider of high bandwidth telecommunication circuits primarily for large corporate enterprises and communications carriers in 17 markets in the United States and 4 markets in Europe. Its private optical network delivered key network and IP services and was used in financial and legal services, media, health care, retail, and government.

Steel Connect

Steel Connect, Inc. is a company that provides supply chain management services to software companies. During the dot-com bubble, the company, which was then known as CMGI, had a market capitalization of $41 billion and owned the naming rights to the home stadium of the New England Patriots. Between 1995 and 1999, its stock was the best performing stock in the United States, returning 4,921%. After the crash of the bubble, the stock price fell 99%.

Vignette Corporation

Vignette Corporation was a company that offered a suite of content management, web portal, collaboration, document management, and records management software. Targeted at the enterprise market, Vignette offered products under the name StoryServer that allowed non-technical users to create, edit and track content through workflows and publish it on the web. It provided integration for enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and legacy systems, supporting Java EE and Microsoft.NET. Vignette's integrated development environment and application programming interface offered an alternative to conventional Common Gateway Interface/vi/Perl web development. StoryServer was used on many large websites including those of CNET, UnitedHealth Group, The Walt Disney Company, Wachovia, Martha Stewart, Fox News, National Geographic Channel, MetLife, BSkyB, the 2004 Summer Olympics, and NASA.

Infor American software company

Infor is a multi-national enterprise software company, headquartered in New York City, United States. Infor focuses on business applications for organizations delivered via cloud computing as a service. Originally focused on software ranging from financial systems and enterprise resource planning (ERP) to supply chain and customer relationship management, in 2010 Infor began to focus on software for industry niches, as well as user-friendly software design. Infor deploys its cloud applications through Amazon Web Services and various open source software platforms.

SAP Ariba is an American software and information technology services company located in Palo Alto, California. It was acquired by German software maker SAP SE for $4.3 billion in 2012.

NetSuite Inc. was an American cloud computing company founded in 1998 with headquarters in San Mateo, California that provided software and services to manage business finances, operations, and customer relations. Its software and services were tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises with solutions for ERP, CRM, PSA, inventory/warehouse management and e-commerce. Oracle Corporation acquired NetSuite for approximately US$9.3 billion in November 2016. The newly formed Oracle NetSuite Business Unit is managed by Executive Vice President Evan Goldberg as "Oracle’s Cloud ERP for Small and Mid-sized Enterprises".

VerticalNet

Verticalnet, Inc. was a host of 43 business-to-business (B2B) procurement portals headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania. It was famous for its market capitalization of $10.89 billion on March 10, 2000, during the dot-com bubble, despite sales of only $112.5 million in 2000. Verticalnet was acquired by Bravo Solutions in 2008 for $15.2 million.

Actua Corporation Defunct venture capital firm

Actua Corporation was a venture capital firm. During the dot com bubble, the company had a market capitalization of over $50 billion. The company was originally known as Internet Capital Group, Inc. and changed its name to Actua Corporation in September 2014. In 2018, the company underwent liquidation.

Daniel Simon Aegerter is the chairman of Armada Investment Group, a family office that manages his wealth. In March 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, Aegerter sold Tradex Technologies, a company he founded, to SAP Ariba for $5.6 billion of stock, making Aegerter a billionaire on paper. Aegerter is a member of the World Economic Forum.

Intershop Communications AG is an independent provider of omnichannel commerce solutions. The latter are available as cloud-based commerce-as-a-service solutions or as licensed models. Upon request, Intershop orchestrates the entire omnichannel commerce process chain – from the design of online channels to the implementation of software to fulfillment. More than 300 enterprise customers run Intershop solutions. Customers include large corporations such as HP, BMW, Würth and Deutsche Telekom as well as medium-sized enterprises. Intershop operates in Europe, the US and the Asia-Pacific region.

Veritas Technologies LLC. is an American international data management company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company has its origins in Tolerant Systems, founded in 1983 and later renamed Veritas Software. It specializes in storage management software including the first commercial journaling file system, VxFS, VxVM, VCS, the personal/small office backup software Backup Exec and the enterprise backup software, NetBackup. Veritas Record Now was an early CD recording software.

References

  1. 1 2 "Ariba completes acquisition of Tradex; Enhances B2B eCommerce platform with addition of industry-leading marketplace solution; extends expertise in delivering B2B eCommerce solutions with addition of over 250 'marketplace specialists" (Press release). M2 Communications. March 2000.
  2. 1 2 3 Moran, Susan (September 1999). "The Enabler". Business 2.0 .
  3. ↑ Quelch, John A. (July 2007). Readings in Modern Marketing. The Chinese University Press.
  4. 1 2 "Ariba to expand Net market role with Tradex". CNET . January 2, 2002.
  5. ↑ "TRADE'ex Announces 100% Pure Java Certification for Distributor & Market Maker" (Press release). Business Wire. July 23, 1997.
  6. 1 2 3 Hubbard, Caroline (August 30, 1999). "Net firm trades Tampa for Atlanta". American City Business Journals .
  7. ↑ "Ariba buys Tradex for $1.9B". CNNMoney . December 16, 1999.
  8. ↑ "Ariba to Buy Tradex for $1.97 Billion". Los Angeles Times . Bloomberg News. December 17, 1999.
  9. ↑ "Ariba FORM 8-K". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 16, 1999.
  10. ↑ "Ariba buys Tradex for $1.86 billion". ZDNet . December 16, 1999.
  11. ↑ "ARIBA BUYS COMPETITOR TRADEX". Advertising Age . December 16, 1999.
  12. ↑ "Ariba, Tradex Deal Joins Internet Commerce Firms". Dow Jones & Company. December 16, 1999.
  13. ↑ Grygo, Eugene (January 6, 2000). "J.D. Edwards Strikes Deal with Tradex". Computerworld .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.