TradeBeam Acquires Open Harbor

Global trade management solutions provider continues expansion of product footprint with purchase of international trade logistics specialist

Global trade management solutions provider continues expansion of product footprint with purchase of international trade logistics specialist

San Mateo, CA — December 8, 2004 — Global trade management (GTM) specialist TradeBeam Holdings has acquired the assets of Open Harbor, a provider of international trade logistics (ITL) solutions, continuing TradeBeam's expansion of its product footprint to cover the lifecycle of global trade across order, logistics and financial settlement activities.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1999, Open Harbor possessed expertise in trade compliance, including a comprehensive centralized repository of global trade content containing millions of trade rules. The company also was considered a leading player in the landed cost management arena. Customers used Open Harbor's technology to gain pricing for international orders based on an aggregate of product costs, taxes and duties charged by the exporting and importing countries.

Signaling the ongoing consolidation in the ITL sector, the purchase of Open Harbor's assets follows two other TradeBeam strategic acquisitions in the last 18 months. In early 2004 TradeBeam acquired SupplySolution, a developer of a vendor managed inventory application for the automotive industry, iSupply. In mid-2003 TradeBeam acquired the assets of Qiva, another ITL specialist with a focus on retail and high-tech industries.

"TradeBeam is executing on its strategy to be the only provider of an integrated suite of solutions capable of streamlining the entire global trade process, from compliance to inventory management to supply chain event management to financial settlement," the company said in a statement announcing the latest acquisition.

"Expanding our compliance capability to include trade content for more than 60 countries and adding a landed cost management solution to our product portfolio were two key objectives for TradeBeam, and we are pleased to have found an opportunity to address both areas through the acquisition of Open Harbor's assets," said Graham R. F. Napier, president and CEO of TradeBeam. "Open Harbor brings strong technology and a solid customer base. We look forward to commencing new relationships with Open Harbor customers and extending their services beyond trade compliance automation to gain additional value from their GTM investments."

Given the complementary nature of the two companies' products, Napier foresees a smooth process integrating Open Harbor's assets into its organization.

In addition, drawing upon the new resources gained through its recent round of funding, TradeBeam said it intends to continue to pursue opportunities to expand its reach and breadth of capabilities for the benefit of its customers.

For a look at how Tyco Fire & Security is tackling trade compliance issues in its global supply chain, see "Turning Global Trade Compliance Into a Competitive Advantage," in the August/September 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

For more information on the challenges and opportunities presented by increasingly global supply chains, see the special in-depth report in the August/September 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive, which includes the following articles:

For more information on the global supply chain, with a focus on security issues, see "Building the Secure Supply Chain," the Net Best Thing article in the June/July 2003 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.
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