Commerce One Stock Splits, Soars

As the Year of E-business winds down, Commerce One Inc., which had one of the year's leading business-to-business E-commerce initial public offerings, saw its stock price soar today when a three-for-one stock split took effect.

Commerce One shares advanced more than 55 points by late afternoon to more than $255 per share. Investors remain highly bullish on business-to-business E-commerce in general, and Commerce One is among those leading the charge. Its stock split was announced in November, capping a successful year in which the company landed several prominent corporate customers, including General Motors Corp.

As often happens in the Web-heated market, Commerce One's gains helped fuel a larger rally in the pure-play, business-to-business sector--even as the overall Nasdaq market was losing ground. Commerce One arch rival Ariba Inc. jumped 14-1/2 points to 176-1/2, and Chemdex Corp. was up 3-1/2 to 122-1/2.