Intel Buys IPivot

from the gotta-get-that-ecommerce dept

Tue, Oct 5th 1999 11:10am — Mike Masnick

Intel announced today that they spent $500 million to purchase ecommerce company IPivot. The interesting bits are (1) it's not totally clear what Intel will do with them and (2) people seem to think that IPivot could have cashed out for a much larger number.

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Wonko the Sane, 5 Oct 1999 @ 5:42pm

Intel's plans
I work at Intel...in fact, I work for the very division that's doing all this purchasing of e-commerce companies. I can't say anything that isn't public knowledge or they'll kick my patootie out the door, but Intel's new Online Services division (previously known as Internet Data Services) has to date spent something in the area of $2 billion+ purchasing e-commerce companies like iCat and IPivot, and, er...doing *other* things.
What they're doing with them is integrating them all into one big division that is working on churning out custom e-commerce services for customers. It's also been reported that Intel is doing a lot of work with Excite on this aspect of the project.
For more details on exactly what IOS (previously IDS) is up to, CNet News.com seems to be the most up-to-date on the story (probably has something to do with the fact that Intel owns CNet...).
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- Mike (profile), 5 Oct 1999 @ 5:55pm
  
  Re: Intel's plans
  All very interesting to know... It appears all of my Intel connections are out of date. :) Anyway, the impression I'd gotten from folks there was that the iCat purchase was more or less a bust and not much was going on with it.
  
  As for CNet, when I was at Intel we all used to complain how incredibly mean they were in any story that involved Intel, and my understanding was that the two companies barely talk to each other any more since the MediaDome "incident". I think "own" is a bit strong a term for their relationship with CNet. It would be more accurate to say they were an investor in them, and that was about it.
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