Source: Post Gazette

"While insiders have said the marriage was an obvious and necessary match -- neither company alone was doing all that well despite a lot of buzz in the business-to-business online world -- it hasn't been painless. Layoffs, attrition and culture clashes that are common to most unions have hit Ariba and the former FreeMarkets.

Locally, the work force has shrunk from about 500 a year ago to nearly 400, primarily because of attrition. A wobbly stock price, continuing losses on operations and less-than-stellar sales haven't made the path any smoother.

Despite the kinks, analysts believe that Ariba has been relatively solid since the merger for a dot.com that survived the shakeout. "They haven't been growing, but they haven't been shrinking either," said analyst Jamie Friedman at New York-based Fulcrum Global Partners.

The new strategy could be the combined companies' elixir -- allowing smaller firms to pick and choose the software they want and avoid steep installation costs by using the software via the Internet. Ariba customers also can tap into scaled-down consulting services to guide them through the purchasing process.

The "on-demand" rage has emerged as an online industry phenomenon in the past 18 months, led by software companies Netsuite and Salesforce.com and Ariba rivals Procuri and Ketera Technologies. Much as cable customers can choose the shows and movies they want and some online users select ads, the new services let business customers select from a range of services and prices."