E-Business Shakeout

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From: Frank Bergmann (fraber@fraber.de)
Date: Fri May 26 2000 - 07:32:53 PDT


Wall Street Journal (registration required)
May 19, 2000

**********
*SAP Net Market Retrenchment?
By Rich Karpinski

At this point, all we have to go on is a report in the Wall
Street
Journal.
But if its true, SAP AG, one of the world's largest ERP and
supply chain
companies, may be ready to admit defeat in its first attempt
to enter
the
Net market maker arena.

According to a story in the Journal last week, SAP was close
to inking a
deal to resell Commerce One's marketplace software to its
global
clientele.

If true, the move would mark a major retrenchment by SAP,
which last
year
launched its mySAP.com strategy with much fanfare, pairing a
Web-ification
of its core ERP platform with a portal strategy targeting
Net market
opportunities, so far not successfully.

The deal shows how the balance of power among large software
vendors
ebbs
and flows. Ariba has already teamed up with software
partners from the
traditional world of corporate IT in IBM and i2
Technologies. But IBM
beefed
up its own Net market software last week (see related story
below), so
the
"co-opetition" may only get messier.

Commerce One, meanwhile, is already in tight with
PeopleSoft. An SAP
deal
would be a major coup. It would also be a flash back--SAP
was an
original
investor in Commerce One and re-sold C1's software before
SAP decided to
build its own with mySAP.com.

Of course, Oracle has been competing with all the vendors
mentioned,
with
its own homegrown ERP, supply chain, CRM and now marketplace
software.

With all the shaking out occurring in the net market vs.
brick-and-mortar
space, it's easy to lose sight that the vendors supplying
Net market
makers
are going through a shake-out of their own.

That shakeout gained momentum today as Vignette, which got
its start in
Web
publishing software, bought catalog aggregation software
supplier
OnDisplay
for about $1.7 billion in stock. The acquisition was seen
as a play for
OnDisplay's XML-based Net market software. In another XML
deal,
WebMethods
today bought Active Software for $1.3 billion in stock.

Oracle: A Cheap B2B play
Individual Investor
May 18, 2000
http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?x7164990

Intershop Offers B2B Marketplace Toolkit
Internet News
May 18, 2000
http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?x7161562

Not to be outdone, Oracle--which has already one its fair
share of
e-marketplace business--detailed a new offering called
Oracle Branded
Exchange, a customizable version of its exchange platform it
will sell
using
a franchise model.

Finally, Intershop Communications--which has focused up to
now on
sell-side
e-commerce platforms--last week debuted its MarketPlace
Toolkit. The
company
says it has separate tools to support sellers wishing to
sell their
products
and services into marketplaces; "marketplace organizers,"
which enable
marketplaces by aggregating sellers and linking them to
buyers; and
"marketplace ASPs," which provide technology platforms to
marketplace
organizers on a rental basis.

VerticalNet CEO questions wisdom of supply-side online
exchanges
InfoWorld
May 18, 2000
http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?x7150763

Oracle Offers B2B Exchange Platform
IDM Intranet News
May 18, 2000
http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?x7150683

-- 
http://www.fraber.de/, mailto:fraber@fraber.de


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