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eCommerce - Monday, September 27, 2004

LoopNet - Profile

HQ: San Francisco

Founded: 1995

Management: Dennis "Doosky" DeAndre is Founder and Chairman. He was able to cash-out and now works out of the home office in Atherton while his right-hand-man and CEO, Rich Boyle, does the pushing and shoving.

Investors: CB Richard Ellis, Grubb & Ellis, Homestore.com, Suez Ventures, Marcus & Millichap, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Venture Partners, Oak Investment Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Rustic Canyon Group, Trammell Crow Company, Trinity Ventures.

Business Model: While residential real estate had a fair amount of transparency and openness before the Web, the commercial real estate market was dominated by a few big companies who knew the buyers and the sellers. Loopnet was one of the first to create an online network for commercial real estate. Since the company merged with competitor PropertyFirst.com in 2001 it has become by far the largest in its field. The company reached profitability in 2003 and has added new services such as an ASP offering.

Competitors: Commercial Real Estate Exchange, CommercialSearch, WebRealEstate.com, CityFeet.com and Property.com.

Dirt: We expect to see LoopNet go public as soon as the market smells good - the company's financials and positioning will feel right, VCs have been waiting ages for a pay-out, and the notoriety will help land new clients.