BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKET EXPLOSION.

As part of the new economy, business-to-business companies are the darling of Internet focused investors. Business-to-business commerce is essentially a combination of existing newly established Internet sites which in combination should dramatically alter the way business is being done. Business-to- business commerce is attracting major players such as Oracle into competition with leading business-to-business companies such as Ariba, Inc. and Commerce One, Inc.

Business-to-business companies will profit by selling the software which commercial companies use to manage their business efforts, and then by establishing web sites where business customers can obtain the product and services needed. Critics argue that it will essentially be a commodity business and not contain the profitability envisioned by the innovators in the market today. Some of the larger companies like Oracle are concerned that upstart companies will discover and exploit niches in the corporate market for different types of management software, and thereby exclude Oracle from the data base software marketplace.

The technology industry's oldest and most respected names are anxiously watching the revolutionary development, and are compelled to enter the contest, usually by acquisition, in order to avoid being frozen out of the dramatically emerging business- to-business market.