The weekly newsletter for everyone interested in barter--the world's most versatile business tool!

Online barter company BigVine has propitiously taken advantage of an opportunity presented, merging with one of the highest profile small-business portals in cyberspace-AllBusiness.com. It's a move that should pay big dividends down the road.

AllBusiness was founded in 1998 and provides business solutions to the small business sector. NBCi purchased AllBusiness last February for $225 million in stock. But, because AllBusiness was not yet profitable, the company's losses were a drain on NBCi's earnings. . . which affected its stock price.

It's assumed the spin-off of AllBusiness should allow NBCi to reach profitability faster. NBCi's stock is trading around $5 a share, down from its high of $106 in January.

The new stand-alone company, AllBusiness.com, and will see BigVine's barter technology becoming the barter exchange platform which will reach a prospecting database of more than 1 million small businesses with 750,000 e-mail subscribers.

The merger is a coup for Bippy Siegel, BigVine's 36-year-old CEO. He will become the CEO of the new company, headquartered in San Francisco. And the former BigVine shareholders should be elated with the transaction, including venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, American Express, and buyout specialists Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Aggregately they will own 51%, with NBCi owning the other 49%. (General Electric holds a 39.3% interest in NBCi.)

Reportedly, NBCi will also put another $15-$20 million into AllBusiness, which will include on-air promotional time on NBC-TV and CNBC (NBC's cable outlet). This additional investment by NBCi matches the amount of money which has already been invested in the building of BigVine.

Oxygen Media Bartering 30% - 50%of Its Company To Strategic Investors

The woman's cable TV channel, Oxygen Media, is on a search for strategic investors and partners who will give it a higher profile and more viewers. Oxygen is offering stock warrants which are priced such that, should Oxygen go public anytime soon, investors would profit handsomely.

Barter payments for the stock could include "carriage" (time on the choice analog channel tier where CNN and other favorites are carried), programming resources, or some other type of strategic support.

Here And There. . .

• Les Eisenstien has joined LiquidXS.com as VP of Sales. Prior to this move, Eisenstien was Senior VP/Remarketing at Active International, a leading international corporate barter company. LiquidXS.com is an international online and off-line liquidation company with over 50 years experience in the closeout industry.
  
  
• RealSense.com, a company founded by Frank O'Dell a 21-year veteran in the barter industry, is providing media opportunities for start-up or growing public companies in exchange for cash or equity. Serena Riedel, CIO of RealSense, was recently spotlighted in the August issue of IR Magazine. She is an active member of the National Investor Relations Institute.
  
  
• MicroStrategy Inc., once a high-flying data mining company, announced that its wireless subsidiary, Strategy.com, has entered into a strategic barter alliance with wireless-infrastructure company Aether Systems. Each company is bartering for reseller services, i.e. each company will sell the other's services in the marketplace.
  
  
• BarterNet announced three major Australian affiliations: Bill Rorke's TradeBanc with 1,100 clients in Sydney; David Johnstone and John Attridge's Trade Limited with 2,500 clients in Sydney and the Gold Coast; and Jim Kellie's TradeBart with 2,250 clients and multiple offices in Australia and New Zealand.
  
  
• Beginning in the 4th Quarter this year, the Securities & Exchange Commission has a new accounting rule that will stop the game of front-loading licensing income, i.e. booking licensing and royalty fees from multi-year contracts all at once, when the contract is signed. The ruling requires that income now be booked over the life of the contract.
  
  
• TradeRewards.com continues to expand...they now have over 4,000 clients, 37 partnering trade exchanges, and 500-plus broker accounts. Current value of classified ads tops $9 million among the 900 business listings.