eMerge Interactive's revenue passed a billion dollars in 2001, thanks to the cattle brokers it had bought. The company had set out to move a trade run on sale barns, brokers and handshakes onto the internet. It was a spinout of the incubator XL Vision. When it filed to go public in early 2000, business-to-business marketplaces were the newest craze. Few markets looked as big or as old-fashioned as American beef.

From Imaging to Feedlots

eMerge began as an imaging technology company before it turned to agriculture. Its bet was that an online marketplace and better data could make the cattle trade work better for ranchers, feedlots and packers. The company bought cattle brokers to bring volume onto its system. It also built tools to track animals and verify how beef was raised and handled. The industry it chose ran on trust and long relationships.

Trading Out, Tracking In

eMerge priced at $15 a share in February 2000. Buying brokerage firms pushed revenue past a billion dollars in 2001, but the trading business lost large sums. In 2002 the company decided to exit cattle operations. It focused instead on CattleLog, a verification program, and VerifEYE, a meat inspection technology. Weak beef markets after the 2003 mad cow scare made that path hard too.

Cover: The Bull, Paulus Potter. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a bull (the cattle trade).