Open Market, Inc. today announced it has purchased iCentral, Inc., a vendor of electronic storefront software called ShopSite. The deal is worth $11 million, including $1 million in cash and the balance in Open Market stock.
The ShopSite software, which ranges in price from $495 to $1,296, competes in the low-end business-to-consumer electronic commerce storefront software market and is said to be used by about 1,000 businesses on the Web.
Open Market said it bought iCentral to integrate ShopSite with Open Market's electronic payments transaction server, Transact. That integration is expected to be completed by year-end.
Gail Goodman, vice president of the commerce products group at Open Market, said ShopSite will be sold to small and mid-size businesses primarily through sales channels that include the ISPs and telecommunications companies.
Open Market already sells a high-end electronic commerce storefront product, LiveCommerce, that lets the user establish personalized industrial catalogs with parametric search capabilities.
The purchase of iCentral's ShopSite calls into question the marketing and technology partnerships Open Market has fostered with other low-end electronic commerce storefront vendors such as iCat, Inc. Open Market indicated it will continue efforts to integrate Transact into products competing with ShopSite.
