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Two meeting powerhouses merge to make inroads into $300 billion market
StarCite Inc. and OnVantage Inc. merged to create the largest on-demand meetings management company in the $300 billion global marketplace for corporate meetings and events.
“With only about 3% of meetings spending currently under management, this business is a virtually untouched front,” said Michael Boult, president and CEO of StarCite.
He will remain in that position with the new company, which will continue to use that name, according to company officials.
He said the new company has a greatly increased capacity to apply on-demand software approaches to the largely unmanaged $300 billion global meetings market.
“The new StarCite has the opportunity to bring buyers and sellers together electronically on an unprecedented scale, savings millions for corporations and delivering lucrative meetings business directly to hotels,” said Mr Boult.
The merger doubles the resources of the company, he said.
Plans he outlined for the new company:
Ø Deliver over $5 billion in revenue opportunities to its supplier database, or up 50% from 2005.
Ø Work with leading global corporations that include Motorola, Nestle, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Shell.
Ø Operate a greatly expanded global meetings marketplace that links buyers with 93,000 hotel properties and meeting suppliers in key markets.
Ø Work with all major hotel chains including Hilton, Hyatt, InterCntinental, Marriot and others.
Ø Process over 2.5 million attendee registrations a year, an increase of 50% over 2005.
The new company is backed by investors such as Internet Capital Group, Norwest Venture Partners, Texas Pacific Group and TL Ventures.
The terms of the merger were not disclosed but it is expected to be completed by the end of 2006.
Current meeting planning clients will be able to use either system through 2007, when StarCite’s Global Meeting Solution will be phased out in favor of OnVantage’s suite of products, said company officials.
As both systems are web-based, “In some instances the customer won’t even realize that they’ve made a platform switch,” said Mr Boult. “You just need a browser.”
Report by David Wilkening
David
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