New Bloomberg article on GM/FMKT auctions may continue...
quote.bloomberg.com
GM Might Still Use FreeMarkets for Some Internet Auctions
GM Might Still Use FreeMarkets for Some Internet Auctions
Detroit, Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. said it
may still use FreeMarkets Inc. to conduct some online auctions, even as the world's largest automaker uses its own GM TradeXchange Web site.
Shares of FreeMarkets, whose software and services allow
companies like GM to buy and sell supplies on the Internet, fell 19 percent on Jan. 4 after it said GM would end its contract and shift its business to rival Commerce One Inc. GM was one of FreeMarkets' largest customers.
``People jumped to the conclusion that we'd never go to
FreeMarkets again,' said Mark Hogan, group vice president for e-GM, the Detroit-based carmaker's Internet unit. ``The FreeMarkets model is a good one, though there are probably a lot of good models out there.'
Pittsburgh-based FreeMarkets said last week that GM would
cancel the contract in 90 days, and that the automaker plans to funnel all of its online auctions through Commerce One, in which GM owns a 19.9 percent stake.
Though GM is shifting auctions to its own TradeXchange,
which it runs with Commerce One, ``there is no master plan to drop FreeMarkets per se,' said Hogan, who met with reporters during the North American International Show in Detroit.
The GM contract represented 17 percent of FreeMarkets' $13
million in revenue in the first nine months of last year. That fell to about 10 percent in the quarter ended Dec. 31,
FreeMarkets said.
The automaker also said it invited Toyota Motor Corp.,
Japan's largest automaker, to join TradeXchange, and that GM
affiliates Isuzu Motors Ltd. and Suzuki Motor Corp. will be
joining soon.
NYSE/AMEX delayed 20 min. NASDAQ delayed 15 min. |
