Digital River's Destructive Acquisition Strategy
By Sharon Housley

Most of us have grown weary of Digital River's acquisitions and are no longer shocked when the announcements are made. How many of us have considered the implications involved in the volume of "takeovers"? I, like almost everyone in the industry, have been fairly complacent about the acquisitions, but now I'm seeing limited choices for developers and the fact is the "little guy" can no longer compete.

I looked the other way when RegNet, FileBasket and SiliconRealms were bought by Digital River this past summer. I didn't really mind when DR acquired RegSoft, or Simtel though I was a bit disappointed about RegNow. PsL and Digibuy were first on the list, and long forgotten to most. Most developers are not even aware that Digital River purchased CCNow, Beyond.com, Freemerchant.com and NetSales. The count in early 2003, was eleven acquisitions in 3 years.