KOZ.com and Internet Tradeline to marry

KOZ.com, which extends real-world communities onto the Internet, and Internet Tradeline, an e-commerce solutions provider for small and medium-sized businesses, will merge. The merged company also said today that it has secured commitments for an additional $16.2 million equity investment from its original investors.

When the deal closes in September, the new company, which will be called Koz.com, will extend an online affiliate network of more than 600 high-traffic, local-interest Web sites powered by KOZ.com's community publishing and/or e-commerce solutions. The network, which is claimed to be the largest aggregation of local community-based sites on the Web with nearly 20 million monthly page views, includes leading newspapers, television and radio stations, businesses and associations, virtual communities and bank sites.

By joining forces, Koz.com and Internet Tradeline plan to integrate their technologies to facilitate network affiliates’ ability to create contextual marketing opportunities that attract advertisers, users and merchants.