StarCite
, today announced its acquisition of privately held competitor b-there Corporation.  In combining the top two providers of attendee relationship management and enterprise meetings management tools, StarCite will offer the most comprehensive suite of corporate enterprise solutions in the market.

Combined, StarCite expects to process in excess of 1 million registration transactions annually and manage more than $700 million worth of meeting and event requests for proposal (RFPs) through its StarCite Online Marketplace.

“Strategically, it’s important that we continue to grow our influence in the online registration area, and we’re thrilled to be able to combine b-there’s proven technologies with our continued focus on innovations,” said John Pino, Founder and CEO of StarCite, Inc.  “Most importantly, we believe this combination is in alignment with our commitment to offer our customers the professional service that is absolutely necessary for enterprise-wide solutions.  We’re excited about the quality of the people who will be joining us.” 

With the acquisition, StarCite adds to its product line b-there’s Attendee Relationship Management online registration platform and OneForm, a meeting consolidation solution that includes an event approval process. Among b-there’s leading customers are Aetna Inc., American Express, AT&T, Nortel Networks and Proctor & Gamble.

b-there customers now have options to extend their meeting solutions to the StarCite Online Marketplace with more than 54,000 industry suppliers, preferred vendor management tools, supply chain management; online group air booking capabilities; services to guarantee success; or the Integrated Meetings Platform that combines it all for enterprise deployments. For suppliers, StarCite offers both innovative marketing opportunities and technologies to further expand b-there’s products in this space. Among StarCite’s leading customers are Amgen, American Express, Cisco Systems, KPMG, Lehman Brothers, Motorola and Quaker Oats.

StarCite now offers two leading attendee registration platforms, ARM and RegWeb, acquired last summer from Cardinal Communications.  StarCite will continue to support both attendee registration products as it develops a next generation tool for release in 2004.
The next generation product will integrate the best of both existing products with enhancements to extend the reach and ease-of-use. To help drive the new tool, b-there investors Seaport Capital and TL Ventures are investing additional capital into StarCite, Inc. Bill Luby, partner with Seaport Capital, New York, will join StarCite’s board of directors.

“The combination gives customers the most comprehensive solutions to manage meetings - - from concept and approval through delivery,” said Luby. “We are very excited about the b-there-StarCite combination and thrilled to be an investor in StarCite, the acknowledged industry leader,” he added. 

“The decision to acquire b-there is part of our overall strategy to grow our business, products and customer base,” said Dwayne Spradlin, President and COO of StarCite, Inc. “In combining our expertise, technology and resources, StarCite and b-there can accelerate the delivery of innovative solutions to both buyers and sellers in the meetings and events market. We have tremendous respect for b-there’s products and accomplishments over the past seven years and look forward to building upon its success.”

Customers will continue to work with b-there
‘s developers, account managers, customer service representatives and sales executives. While b-there will now market under the StarCite brand, StarCite will retain the existing product names. The privately held companies did not disclose terms of the acquisition.

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(16/08/2003) b-there Selects Infotreiver Delivery System

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