Bright Builders Inc. has acquired HammerTap software designed for eBay users. Ken Walton, General Manager of ThinkTanq Corporation, stated in a press release, "Bright Builders' agreement with eBay to license its auction data means HammerTap's future looks very bright."

Interestingly, ThinkTanq's Ken Walton is the same Kenneth Walton who, in April 2001, pled guilty to three counts of wire fraud and four counts of mail fraud for making fraudulent or "shill" bids on eBay, including a forged Diebenkorn painting. Walton is prohibited from participating in online auctions directly or indirectly, according to his plea agreement, which allowed him to avoid jail time. Kenneth Fetterman, an alleged co-conspirator, is scheduled to go to trial on June 8, 2004.

Kenneth Walton and his brother Andrew Walton co-founded and ran the HammerTap Web site with another relative until November 2003, when Bright Builders Inc. took over the HammerTap software. Greg Cole, President of Bright Builders, declined to say how much he paid for the software.

Bright Builders Inc. has been a reseller of HammerTap software for about a year and provides an ecommerce tool called Bright Builder to about 3,000 home-based and small-business customers.

Cole said the main focus right now is on making HammerTap's flagship product DeepAnalysis compliant with eBay's data licensing requirements. DeepAnalysis aggregates sales figures and sell-through rates on eBay. A new release will be out in about a month. Cole said they had to take away a few minor features that were in violation of eBay's privacy policy and will add features, such as cross-category checking.

Cole expects the fees to change once they determine what kind of load the system requires. "There are 2-5 million records a day that we store," he said. Bright Builders will make a license version that comes with a certain amount of access, and will charge overage fees for heavy-load users. Eventually the company will integrate auction features into its Bright Builder ecommerce package. Bright Builders will support all of the HammerTap software, including FeeFinder, Auction Informant, BayMail, BidderBlock, and BayCheck, a tool buyers use to look for evidence of shill bidding on eBay.