Vendio Acquires Majority Stake in Andale

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eBay Provider Vendio Acquires Majority Stake in Andale
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
June 13, 2006 
Vendio announced it has acquired a significant controlling interest in Andale, a provider of listing management and research services for sellers on eBay, and has appointed five directors to the Andale seven-member Board of Directors. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.





Vendio CEO Rodrigo Sales said, "Vendio and Andale have complementary strengths that have helped us collectively lead the industry as the two largest sales management providers with the most innovative applications for online merchants. We look forward to sharing the knowledge and relationships we've gained managing our profitable, growing business over the last four years with the Andale team. From economies of scale and category and geographic expansion to new services and technologies, this deal will result in a host of lucrative new opportunities for both companies and the customers they serve."

The newly appointed Board of Directors named long time Andale executive, Ravi Garikipati, as Andale’s new Chief Executive Officer upon the recent resignation of Linda Hayes, who departed to explore another opportunity. Garikipati will manage the daily Andale operations as the two companies determine the best ways to leverage their respective strengths going forward.

Garikipati said, "We've always had great respect for one another and recognized that if our complementary strengths and knowledge were leveraged, we would lead the industry with the most comprehensive and innovative solutions for online sellers. There’s no doubt that our combined expertise and experience will deliver great new products for the entire industry.”

Vendio and Andale are working closely on several strategic initiatives that will produce new and expanded services for the entire seller community, while also exploring ways to further enhance Andale's industry leading research solutions and Vendio’s recently launched comparison shopping toolbar, Dealio.

Vendio was founded in January 1999 and is privately held. It recently celebrated its third year of profitable growth, and is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Eastern Europe.

Andale is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and opened offices in Bangalore, India, in 2002.

http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i13/s00

[regic]

Acquisition completed, message to Andale customers:

Andale Has Been Acquired By Vendio. Here is What You Need To Know.

We want to update you about an exciting new development at Andale. Andale has been acquired by Vendio, an auction management company similar to Andale. Each company, brings unique capabilities, strengths, and product features to the now combined business. Together, we are the undisputed leader in online sales and marketplace management.

Below are answers to some initial questions you may have about this news. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact your Account Development Manager, send email to Andale Customer Service, or post on the Andale Community board. As more details become available, we will let you know. We intend to keep you well-informed at all times.

What is going to happen to my Andale account?
Nothing will change. In particular, we will make no changes during this holiday selling season. You will continue to have access to the same tools. The logistics and branding of these tools may eventually change, but we will keep the user and the user experience first and foremost. We are not going to disrupt your business, but enhance it.

Are there any changes to billing policies?
Billing policies will not change for your tools. You will continue to make payments the same way and under the same terms you do today.

What will happen to customer support?
Customer support will continue unchanged. The people who have been providing your support will continue in the same roles.

Will these changes affect how I use your tools?
There will not be any immediate changes. In the future, you will have the opportunity to use enhanced tools that combine the strengths of Andale's and Vendio's tools. We plan to create tools that will make all our customers happy, whether they started as Andale or Vendio customers.

Will Vendio's acquisition of Andale improve the way I work with your tools?
You can expect to see better tools that include the best ideas and features of both Andale and Vendio. Using our tools, Andale and Vendio customers sell over $1 billion a year in gross market value; we have the most experience in building efficient, effective tools. Together, our tools are and will continue be the best available.

Auctionbytes article:

Vendio and Andale customers should expect no service changes in the foreseeable future, particularly during the holiday shopping season, according to a press release issued on Tuesday. The company will focus on infrastructure changes and consolidating the back-end processes, and URLs and user-interfaces will remain unchanged at least over the course of the next two to three months.

Vendio CEO Rodrigo Sales said the acquisition has long-term benefits because the two companies had been duplicating efforts in building products and improving features. Sales used the two companies' gallery tools as an example. He said rather than the companies each building the same services, the acquisition now eliminates that duplication of effort so that Vendio can accelerate the rate of product development and feature enhancement. "The long-term benefit to the acquisition is that it will enable the company to innovate much faster," he said...

full article; http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m11/i15/s01