Another dot com company bit the dust when FoodUSA.com -- an on-line exchange handling the meat and poultry trades -- announced it would shut down after a deal it made to sell the business fell through. FoodUSA.com founder and chairman Rod Heller points to Commerce Ventures as the reason for closing down. Commerce is a competing b-to-b marketplace backed by some of the industry's largest companies -- IBP, Tyson Foods, Gold Kist, Cargill and Farmland Industries.
"Commerce Ventures froze the market," said Heller. "Meat and poultry traders acted like a deer caught in headlights. They won't do anything until they see what happens with Commerce Ventures."