March 23, 2001
"DTN Tradelink and tradingproduce.com MERGE, CREATING WORLD'S
LEADING
E-COMMERCE SOLUTION FOR PRODUCE AND OTHER PERISHABLE INDUSTRIES"
Omaha,
Neb. March 23, 2001. - Data Transmission Network Corporation (DTN),
and DTN Tradelink, an Internet based e-commerce solution and tradingproduce.com,
the world's premier business-to-business Internet site for the food
and agriculture industries, today announced their merger. The combined
company will be led by Robert Bonavito, Chief Executive Officer,
John Abkes, President and Chief Operating Officer and Zia Zahiri,
Chief Technical Officer. Operational issues are expected to be completed
within thirty days. Specific terms of the merger were not disclosed.
"The
merger is a significant strategic move on the part of both companies
to combine customer base, technology, and resources to create the
world's largest e-commerce solution for produce, meat, seafood,
floral, and other perishables." John Abkes, President of DTN
Tradelink said, "We wanted to team up with a company that was
a technology leader in work-flow automation with a robust scaleable
architecture. The newly merged company will have over 1,500 customers
in all segments of the supply chain from the grower to the retailer,
representing approximately 30% of the U.S. Retail Grocery and Food
Service Industry. Our joint success has come from a dedicated effort
to improve efficiencies and drive out costs. This merger with tradingproduce.com
is about having the product breadth, and critical mass needed to
provide the produce and other perishable industries the solutions
they have been asking for, and further distinguish us in this highly
competitive industry."
"The
combination of our companies provides perfect synergy," said
Rob Bonavito, CEO of tradingproduce.com. "The DTN Tradelink
system is an excellent compliment to our product, providing value
to retailers, food service distributors, brokers and suppliers.
Combined with DTN's expertise in customer integration, real-time
satellite information, and brand name recognition, we believe this
merger enhances our total solution. This is an important milestone
in the perishable industry and demonstrates to our customers that
we are an aggressive, customer driven company that will be around
for the long haul."
Founded
in 1984 and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, DTN is a leading business-to-business
e-commerce and information services company with more than 1000
employees in eight locations across the United States and over 200,000
subscribers throughout the U.S. and Canada. DTN has served professional
users in the agriculture, weather, energy and financial services
industries. DTN is a portfolio company of VS&A Communications
Partners III, LP, the private equity affiliate of Veronis Suhler
& Associates LLC. Veronis Suhler is a leading independent merchant
bank dedicated exclusively to the media, communications and information
industries. DTN Tradelink has been serving the produce and perishable
industry since 1994 with electronic information and e-commerce services.
The Internet based e-commerce and electronic data interchange (EDI)
procurement system was introduced to the produce industry in October
1999.
tradingproduce.com
is a privately held company backed by the $950 million investment
fund Bay Isle in San Francisco, Silicon Valley private investors
and vTraction, an affiliate of Rabobank, which is one of the world's
largest and strongest financial institutions with $290 billion in
assets.
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