Digital River Testing B2B Waters Company In The Black.(A)

Byline: MURRAY COLEMAN

It's time for Digital River Inc. to get down to business.

The company is in the black, thanks to sales growth at the consumer Web shops that it manages. Now it looks to branch out into business-to-business sites.

It seems a natural extension for Digital River, which handles online billing and orders for consumer merchants. It hopes corporate clients are willing to outsource their dealings with other businesses as well.

The move could be a sign of renewed health for the business e-commerce market, which suffered greatly after the dot-com meltdown. Many companies now see outsourcing as a low-cost way to manage B2B tasks, says Joel Ronning, Digital River's chief executive.

"The potential of business e-commerce is even greater than the (consumer e-commerce) market," he said. "And outsourcing does well in all sorts of economies."

The B2B market was red-hot back in 2000, when companies like Ariba and Commerce One promised to build huge corporate e-commerce systems. These B2B networks were meant to let all sorts of businesses trade goods and services online.