---
created_at: '2013-05-20T17:58:12.000Z'
title: Yahoo buys Viaweb for $49 million (1998)
url: http://news.cnet.com/Yahoo-buys-Viaweb-for-49-million/2100-1001_3-212001.html
author: ig1
points: 106
story_text: ''
comment_text: 
num_comments: 52
story_id: 
story_title: 
story_url: 
parent_id: 
created_at_i: 1369072692
_tags:
- story
- author_ig1
- story_5738969
objectID: '5738969'
year: 1998

---
[Yahoo](http://www.yahoo.com/) is doing some e-purchasing to move deeper
into the e-commerce industry.

The Net portal firm today plopped down $49 million for Cambridge,
Massachusetts-based [Viaweb](http://www.viaweb.com/), a maker of tools
for building and operating Internet commerce Web sites.

Yahoo executives said the acquisition is meant to bolster the company's
push into the e-commerce services industry. The Santa Clara,
California-based firm wants to be a services company building,
promoting, and operating online storefronts for small and medium-sized
businesses.

Internet-based selling is expected to quadruple in the next few years
from $2.4 billion last year to $12.1 billion by 2000, according to
[Forrester Research](http://www.forrester.com/).

These figures have lured industry giants [Netscape
Communications](http://www.netscape.com/) and
[Microsoft](http://www.microsoft.com/) as well as
[SAP](http://www.sap.com/) and [Intel](http://www.intel.com/)--with
their joint venture [Pandesic](http://www.pandesic.com/)--to the
e-commerce business.

Yahoo already offers promotional and marketing services to businesses.
With the Viaweb purchase, it hopes to up its offering to include set-up
and design services, hosting, and promotional services through [Yahoo
Store.](http://store.yahoo.com/)

The acquisition is expected to be completed in June pending stockholder
and regulatory approval. Yahoo executives said the purchase will result
in a $45 million one-time hit in its second quarter.
