LV firm in Internet deal with AOL

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Monday, March 20, 2000 | 11:33 a.m.

PurchasePro.com of Las Vegas announced a three-year strategic alliance with America Online Inc. to provide its electronic purchasing service to business users of AOL's Internet sites including CompuServe and Netscape Netcenter.

Announcing a competing B2B (business-to-business) marketplace today was AOL rival Yahoo! Inc.

The industry news service ZDNet News reported research firm IDC predicts B2B e-commerce will grow from $200 billion in 2000 to $2.5 trillion in 2004 -- prompting a lot of companies to get into the industry.

But PurchasePro stock fell $13.44 to $138.31 this morning after a Barron's article questioned the general viability of many fast-growing Internet companies.