US firm VerticalNet will acquire Tradeum of Israel for $474 million in a transaction involving the issue of 2 million VerticalNet shares in return for Tradeum's activity. Company value for the purpose of the sale was set at Tradeum's share price at the close of trading on Tuesday, at $237.5 per share.
Last July, Tradeum raised $3.5 million on $7 million company value, after money. Participants in the financing round included Baan company founders Jan and Paul Baan, along with Israeli VC funds Vertex, Seed Partners and STI, together with Reuters Finance. "Globes" has learned that Tradeum has not yet begun selling products.
Tradeum, founded in 1998 by Zvi Schreiber, is a Jerusalem based start-up specializing in B2B commerce platforms supporting on-line catalogs, auctions, and exchanges. Schreiber owns a 20% share of Tradeum, whose value according to the VerticalNet deal is now $95 million.
Tradeum provides a flexible platform that allows market makers to choose their appropriate market design and switch seamlessly between different types of exchanges, auctions and sourcing activities. The company recently developed an application for the wholesale and energy markets, for the purposes of which it opened offices in Belgium and the US.
VerticalNet, established in 1995, owns and operates 56 industry-specific Web sites designed as online business-to-business communities, known as vertical trade communities or vertical portals serving 1,795 different companies. The company trades at a value of $8.3 billion and is considered one of Wall Street's outstanding successes in recent years.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on March 8, 2000.