Interesting that Intel isn't involved in the following:
Monday May 1, 4:13 pm Eastern Time
Top computer makers, suppliers to create B2B company
NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Three of the top five computer makers on Monday said they would join forces with some of their largest component suppliers to form an independent company that could become the largest online marketplace in any industry to date.
Twelve of the biggest names in the computer industry said the new company would help wring efficiencies from the existing global manufacturing supply chain, taking a page from ``old economy'' industries such as automakers, airlines and retailers that have formed similar cross-industry partnerships recently.
``The goal is supply-chain savings,'' Michael Capellas, president and chief executive of Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news), the world's No.1 maker of personal computers, said in an interview ahead of a news conference to unveil the plan.
At the New York news conference, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news) and Gateway Inc. (NYSE:GTW - news) -- respectively ranked No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5 in personal computer shipments -- joined with nine suppliers to announce the plan.
The suppliers are chip makers Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD - news), Samsung Electronics , Infineon Technologies , NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. , disk-drive makers Quantum Corp. (NYSE:HDD - news) and Western Digital Corp. (NYSE:WDC - news), and printed circuit-board makers Solectron Corp. (NYSE:SLR - news) and SCI Systems Inc. (NYSE:SCI - news)
Backers of the plan said they were open to other industry players joining -- including International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) and Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) -- and that Internet marketplace software and services suppliers could participate, too. The new company is expected to be up and running in 90 days, and its management would decide the underlying software structure of the marketplace.
Carly Fiorina, president and chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, said the participants estimated that they could realise cost savings of between 5 percent to 7 percent from the parts supply marketplace -- which is estimated to generate $600 billion in total sales of high-tech components over the few years.
In a joint interview with Compaq's Capellas ahead of the news conference, she said would encourage her company's thousands of suppliers to join the marketplace, and that the other participants would do likewise. |
