XS Inc. has completed the sale of its XSAg.com chemical exchange business to Farmtrader LLC, an entity comprised of former XSAg.com employees who have been associated with the business for the last 12 years.
The transaction closed on Jan. 4, 2013 for an undisclosed sum. Neither XS employees nor shareholders retain any ownership or connection with the business unit with the closing of the sale.
"While the XSAg business has continued to grow since first introduced in 1999, the strategic direction of XS, Inc., the previous parent company of the XSAg.com exchange, has taken a different direction," said Fulton Breen, CEO of XS.
XS began to expand into the data management, analytics and business application development market in 2001 and has grown to become the largest manager of agricultural point of sale data in the industry. "We have a team of about 80 people of which four were associated with XSAg.com," Breen said. "Our focus has moved completely into data management."
"Under its new ownership, the XSAg.com business will continue to receive the attention and support to which our clients are accustomed," said Jeff Stow, president of Farmtrader. "XSAg.com and its patented technology will provide growers and dealers an Internet alternative to buying crop protection chemicals much like Amazon has in the retail arena."
"Besides being the premiere crop protection e-commerce trading business, it also has enormous capabilities beyond trading," Stow said. "In addition to the nearly 100,000 registered users and a data base of over one million dealers and growers, the business offers a patented commerce system that manages the complexities of financial settlement, freight, logistics and regulatory compliance as well as an experienced and dedicated sales and management team."
All support services associated with XSAg.com will be separated from XS's infrastructure and run separately and independently from XS. "Farmtrader has new offices being constructed in Cary, N. C. and plans to be completely installed in our new facilities by Jan. 30. We're excited about our new beginnings," Stow said.
XS is based in Morrisville, N. C. and is a provider of data management and analytics.
Source: agprofessional.com