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WSJ...EDS to invest $10,000,000 in Ariba/Tradex...
December 17, 1999
Ariba Agrees to Acquire Tradex
For About $1.86 Billion in Stock
By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Ariba Inc. agreed to buy Tradex
Technologies Inc. for nearly $2 billion, and it expects to announce
strategic investments by some corporate customers of the
electronic-commerce companies.
Ariba coordinates companies' Internet
purchases of services, office supplies
and other products, and closely held
Tradex of Atlanta operates "net
markets," which bring industrial buyers
and sellers together on the Web.
Ariba said it will issue 8.3 million shares
for Tradex; it expects the acquisition to
be completed in the second quarter. At 4
p.m. Thursday in Nasdaq Stock Market
trading, Ariba was up $13.50, or 6%, to
$237.50. Negotiations between the
companies were reported earlier in the week.
Ariba Chief Executive Keith Krach declined to identify the
investors or say how much cash they will provide. But Electronic
Data Systems Corp., Plano, Texas, said it will put up $10 million.
The computer-services company is a Tradex client and had
considered a 1% stake in Tradex before the Ariba deal took
shape.
Mr. Krach said acquisition talks began last month, when top
executives of Ariba and Tradex delivered speeches at a
Berkeley, Calif., industry conference.
John Baumstark, Tradex's chief operating officer, will head the
combined company's net-markets unit.
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Splits today <vbg>
--Bill |
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