Business Travel News has learned that online meetings management firm StarCite Inc. has acquired rival technology firm B-there Corp. The deal, one of the largest and most significant in the brief history of the meetings technology industry, gives Philadelphia-based StarCite access to a client list that includes Aetna, American Express, AT&T, Nortel Networks and Procter & Gamble, as well B-there's ARM attendee management and OneForm data consolidation tools to complement its own technology offerings.
StarCite indicated it would continue to support B-there's technology, at least until it can develop a single tool that incorporates both StarCite and B-there attendee management technology, which is not expected until 2004. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Industry insiders had viewed B-there as a possible acquisition target, particularly since the April 30 departure of CEO Christine Berthet
(Meetings Today, May 12). Westport, Conn.-based B-there was on the vanguard of registration and attendee management technology when it debuted in 1999 and introduced a meetings consolidation companion piece in 2002.