Sabre e-Marketplace will enable online procurement by 47,000 travel agencies that use Sabre's reservation services, as well as by airlines, airports, cruise lines, hotels, and car-rental companies. Sabre will aggregate purchasing for volume discounts.

Marketplace users will pay Sabre fees to license procurement software and to integrate the marketplace with their existing systems; Sabre may also take a cut of the revenue from purchase transactions.

Sabre will build e-Marketplace with software and services from Ariba Inc. Ariba and its competitors in the business-to-business commerce arena "are all trying to do deals with the giant players, the No. 1 or 2 in their industries," says Tim Clark, VP of advisory services for Net Market Makers, an Internet marketplace research and consulting firm. "Sabre has thousands of customers locked in."

Ariba rival Commerce One Inc. says it will work with the world's fifth-largest steel producer, Ispat International N.V. of the Netherlands, to build a Net marketplace for the metals industry. They will seek participants across the global supply chain, from mining companies to steel producers.

Another large industry leader, ConAgra Inc., will unveil its first Web-based procurement initiative this week. The agribusiness company will use Datastream Systems Inc.'s iProcure network to buy industrial parts for eight frozen-food processing plants.