Taking a bite out of AppNetWhen Commerce One snapped up AppNet in September 2000, which at the time was the fourth-largest interactive media services agency in the country according to Advertising Age, it quadrupled the size of its consulting division, now called Commerce One Global Services. AppNet's founder, Ken Bajaj, who had also started I-Net, is on board as a Commerce One executive VP and the president of Global Services. Global Services offers services to the e-marketplaces and e-business communities.
Let's make a deal
The swap stock, offered by Commerce One in June 2000, amounted to approximately $2 billion. Including all of the Commerce One global operations, the company boasts 44 offices in 18 countries and a total staff of more than 3,700 - the firm's Global Services division constitutes just over half of the firm, with nearly 2,000 employees. Commerce One is continuing to expand - a new Japanese headquarters opened in Tokyo in 2000; a Nordic headquarters in Copenhagen was announced in January 2001; and a deal that will provide entr?e into the Finnish market was announced in February 2001.
A growing e-marketplace
Global Services capabilities contribute to the Commerce One work with e-marketplaces. One of the biggest of these is Covisint, an automotive e-marketplace founded by partners Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler. As part of this arrangement, GM and Ford have each acquired 14.4 million shares of Commerce One stock. Even prior to the union of AppNet and Commerce One, 80 percent of AppNet's work was with B2B companies, 90 percent of which is in the Fortune 1000 and 30 percent is involved in e-marketplaces.In an effort to trim redundancies due to the acquisition of AppNet and other companies in 2000, Commerce One laid off 150 workers or 4 percent of its staff, many of whom were formerly with AppNet. The January 2001 cuts were not indicative of any decrease in work or revenues.
