did anyone see this?
BELLEVUE, Wash. – January 4, 2000 – Mercata™ (www.mercata.com), the leading provider of Internet-based group buying services, today announced that it will cease operations as of January 31, 2001. Mercata had filed for an IPO in early 2000 before the market correction. The company has since been unable to attract further private investment.
“Mercata has performed extremely well as a company despite the difficult economic environment,” said Tom Van Horn, founder, president and CEO of Mercata, Inc. “We have consistently met or exceeded the goals that we have set for ourselves and against which investors measure our performance.”
In August of 2000, Mercata was granted the first patent covering group buying business methods and technology. Mercata has 16 additional patents pending on its proprietary business methods and related technology. Its patented business methods and systems delivered powerful yield management and dynamic pricing capabilities to Mercata.com, the We-Commerce Network and Mercata Marketplace partners.
Following its launch in May of 1999, Mercata built a leading online consumer shopping destination and introduced the PowerBuy to the World Wide Web. The company also built a thriving platform business that allowed sellers to leverage its proprietary group buying technology through the We-Commerce Network, with partners including Sun Microsystems and General Motors. In November 2000, Mercata launched the Mercata Marketplace, a platform for small and medium-sized sellers to offer their products and services for sale using self-service PowerBuys. Since its launch, the Mercata Marketplace has signed hundreds of online sellers and sponsored and hosted thousands of PowerBuy offers.
“The entire Mercata team is extremely proud of its success in creating innovative intellectual property and proprietary technology,” said Van Horn. “Despite market conditions, we believe that our team demonstrated both tremendous innovation and superior execution.”
Mercata.com will be accepting orders until January 31, 2001 and accepting returns if they are postmarked by January 20, 2001. The We-Commerce Network and Mercata Marketplace will continue operations until January 31. Mercata is providing detailed information for customers and partners on its site as well as through customer service, which can be reached via e-mail at CustomerService@mercata.com or phone at 1-877-637-2282.
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Contact Information Contact:
Rosanne Marks
MWW/Savitt
206-689-8505 |
