Consolidation craze continues

 

roundup

Internet companies are getting scooped up by the handful. Egghead and Onsale's $400 million merger follows a slew of deals yesterday, including Columbia House and CDNow, DoubleClick and NetGravity, Excite@Home and iMall, and E*Trade and TIR Holdings. "We intend to build further on this platform and create new technology-based distribution approaches that will supplement and leverage many of our business entities." - Sony CEO Howard Stringer

Egghead, Onsale in $400 million merger update The merger is the latest sign of consolidation in the e-commerce business and comes one day after industry giant Amazon.com said it would enter the consumer electronics market. CDNow to merge with Columbia House update Backed by media giants Sony and Time Warner, music sellers CDNow and Columbia House agree to merge to create a major entertainment, e-commerce, and direct marketing company. DoubleClick buys NetGravity The Internet advertising firm announces it is acquiring rival online advertiser NetGravity in a stock transaction valued at about $530 million. Excite@Home buys iMall for $425 million Excite@Home, a high-speed Internet access provider controlled by AT&T, will buy iMall for about $425 million in stock as it adds to its online shopping offerings. E*Trade to buy TIR Holdings for $122 million E*Trade Group says it's buying TIR Holdings, which executes trades for institutions in more than 35 countries, for $122 million in stock.