Last Friday’s blog announcement, “Is ITEX (U.S.A. Largest Barter Co.) About To Be Acquired?” created a windstorm of comments. We received feedback in the form of phone calls, faxes, emails and comments following the blog itself. To read Friday’s blog: ITEX

As ITEX is finding out, when you’re the largest publicly-traded company in your field you get noticed. Not a bad situation considering there are 8,000 smaller publicly-traded companies, all seeking the rarified air of recognition.

ITEX has some impressive credentials: 1) $14 million in revenue last year 2) 24,000 members 3) membership growth up more than 50% in the last 30 months 4) cash flow exceeded $2.5 million last year.

Such figures are turning heads, and given the potential of commercial barter, ITEX could be a real gem of an acquisition…especially for an eBay or Amazon.Com.

An excellent story on Western Sizzlin, the company interested in acquiring ITEX reinforces the astuteness of their management. To read the complete story see: http://www.fatpitchfinancials.com/719/valuing-western-sizzlin/

If you don’t have time to read the complete story, here is the “meat” in the story regarding ITEX: “A quick look at ITEX shows it is a marketplace for cashless business transactions with a P/E of 3.6, P/B of 1.2, and an ROE of 35%. Those numbers look great and I’m kind of wishing I found this little company myself.”

Plus there is this one on Amazon investing in a “payment service”. ITEX could easily come into play. PAYMENT

Amazon Invests in Payment Service
December 12, 2007; Page B2
Web retailer Amazon.com Inc. said it is making an undisclosed minority investment in online payments start-up Bill Me Later Inc. and added that it will make the deferred-payment option available on its site.

Bill Me Later, Timonium, Md., allows consumers to pay for purchases at a Web site without using a credit card and to make deferred payments on their purchase. Amazon’s investment in the closely held company is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.

Alternative-payment services accounted for 14% of online retail volume in 2007, and that is expected to climb to 30% by 2012, according to Javelin Strategy and Research, Pleasanton, Calif.

Stay tuned…Will we see a Burgers&Barter.com (Western Sizzlin & ITEX) or a larger entity making a play for ITEX–a gem of an acquisition. Or will Steve White and the ITEX stockholders choose to build the company for a much greater payoff down the road?

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.