After scrapping their IPO yesterday, citing poor market conditions, Mercata, a provider of Internet-based group buying services, today announced that it will cease operations as of January 31, 2001.

According to a release issued this morning, the Company has been unable to attract further private investment following the failed IPO.

"Mercata has performed extremely well as a company despite the difficult economic environment," said Tom Van Horn, founder, president and CEO of Mercata, Inc. "We have consistently met or exceeded the goals that we have set for ourselves and against which investors measure our performance."

In August of 2000, Mercata was granted the first patent covering group buying business methods and technology.

Mercata has 16 additional patents pending on its proprietary business methods and related technology.

In addition to its consumer destination site Mercata.com, launched in May of 1999, the company also built a platform business.

"The entire Mercata team is extremely proud of its success in creating innovative intellectual property and proprietary technology," said Van Horn. "Despite market conditions, we believe that our team demonstrated both tremendous innovation and superior execution."

Mercata.com will be accepting orders until January 31, 2001 and accepting returns if they are postmarked by January 20, 2001.