Digital River Acquires FreeMerchant.com

Taking steps to further extend its e-commerce outsourcing model to the small-to-midsize enterprise (SME) market, commerce-service provider Digital River Inc. acquired the customer assets of technology infrastructure company FreeMerchant.com from Network Commerce Inc. for $875,000 in cash.

"This acquisition is an extension of our plan to further leverage our e-commerce system to support a growing base of SME sites in our E-Business Services Division," Joel Ronning, Digital River's CEO, says. "We are committed to providing Network Commerce's clients superior e-commerce outsourcing products and services through our world-class infrastructure, which now supports a client base of over 13,000 companies ranging in size from small businesses to large enterprises."

Expected to be immediately accretive, the acquisition counts as Digital River's ninth in the past three years. Others have included Orbit Commerce Inc. and RegSoft.com Inc.

The agreement provided Digital River with approximately 3,000 subscription-based customers from Network Commerce's FreeMerchant.com business and does not include the acquisition of any Network Commerce personnel.

Digital River's commerce services include e-commerce strategy, site development and hosting, order and transaction management, system integration, product fulfillment and returns, e-marketing, and customer service.