Chemdex Corp. said it has established Ventro Corp., a new company focused on
building and operating next-generation business-to-business vertical
marketplace companies.
Ventro was created to leverage the assets originally developed by Chemdex in
the life sciences market across multiple vertical marketplaces, Chemdex said.
Ventro is a publicly traded company that incorporates all of the existing
operations of Chemdex and Promedix. Ventro will use the Chemdex stock symbol,
CMDX, until March 1, when this symbol will be replaced by VNTR.
Ventro said it will create e-commerce marketplace companies through joint
ventures with industry-leading partners or through acquisitions. Ventro said
it will target large, inefficient, fragmented markets that have significant
revenue and product gross margin potential.
The Ventro companies will include Chemdex, (which recently partnered with
e-commerce company Commerce One), Promedix, Industria Solutions and the
Ventro-Tenet Healthcare Supply Venture, each with its own industry-specific
management team. SpecialtyMD.com, another recent Chemdex
acquisition, also becomes part of Ventro. No financial transactions are
associated with the formation of Ventro.
The existing Chemdex management team transitions to become the Ventro
management team, which includes David Perry as president and chief executive
officer.
Ventro companies offer complete e-commerce solutions consisting of extensive
online marketplaces, electronic procurement, systems integration to interface
with customer and supplier systems, and comprehensive services and support.