Digital River Buys Small Biz Customers

Digital River, Inc. , the Minneapolis-based provider of outsourced e-commerce services, today announced that it has acquired the customer assets of FreeMerchant.com, an e-commerce technology and application service provider (ASP) serving small and medium size businesses, from Seattle-based Network Commerce, Inc., in exchange for $875,000 in cash.

The acquisition intends to reinforce the company’s position in the e-commerce market as well as increase its potential in the small to mid-sized enterprise (SME) market.

“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,” said Joel Ronning, Digital River’s CEO.

“We are committed to providing Network Commerce’s clients superior e-commerce outsourcing products and services through our infrastructure, which now supports a client base of over 13,000 companies ranging in size from small businesses to large enterprises,” he adds.

In addition to the cash payment, the agreement provides Network Commerce an opportunity for an additional earn out based upon revenue generated from the acquired customer assets over the next ten months.

The agreement does not include the acquisition of any Network Commerce personnel.

The purchase marks Digital River’s ninth acquisition in the past three years.