Click Commerce Acquires Services and Contractor Management Software Business from Elance

Adds new collaborative commerce capabilities across the extended enterprise; Elance to focus on Internet business

Adds new collaborative commerce capabilities across the extended enterprise; Elance to focus on Internet business

Chicago — February 10, 2006 — Solutions provider Click Commerce has acquired the operating assets of Elance's on-demand e-commerce solutions for services business, adding collaborative commerce capabilities that enable companies to find, evaluate, purchase, manage and pay contractors and third-party service providers.

"As manufacturing companies outsource more and more of their operations, buying and managing third-party services and service providers becomes a real challenge," said Michael W. Ferro, Jr., chairman and CEO of Click Commerce. "The addition of services and contractor management capabilities creates significant cross-selling opportunities in the aerospace and defense and contract manufacturing verticals, as well as in our core markets of high-tech, financial services, and institutional research."

Ferro added that Click Commerce's service-oriented architecture would facilitate its customers' use of the new solutions to derive cost savings, greater visibility and increased compliance for the services they are already buying.

Click to Continue Offering

Click Commerce will continue offering the Elance outsourcing management software as a service to different industries, including the high-tech, energy, financial services, manufacturing, transportation and utilities industries. Elance estimated that in 2005 its customers used its solutions to manage over $7 billion of their services and contractor spending on IT, contingent labor, operations, management consulting, marketing, print, and other service projects.

The customers of this Elance business include a number of existing Click Commerce customers, such as FedEx, GE and Motorola, as well as other well-known companies, like American Express and BP. The acquisition also included two foreign Elance subsidiaries, which expanded Click Commerce internationally by increasing its European presence with additional sales and support staff in the United Kingdom and by adding a small software development facility in India.

Elance Focusing on Internet Business

As consideration, Click Commerce paid approximately $15 million in stock and cash for the services and contractor management business assets of Elance.

In 2006, Click Commerce expects the acquired Elance business to recognize approximately $7,500,000 in recurring revenues from its customers purchasing maintenance, hosting and services. The majority of the employees of this Elance business unit will become Click Commerce employees after the transaction.

After the sale of the Services and Contractor Management business, Elance is expected to concentrate on its Internet business and the growth of its online service for small business outsourcing.


Additional Articles of Interest

— For a look at how telecommunications equipment company Avaya is using a managed service program to get a handle on its temp labor spend, read the article "A "NEW" Approach to Managing Temp Labor" in the December 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

— For more information on professional services procurement solutions, see the article "It's All About People," the Net Best Thing column in the January 2002 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.


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