Answers, Answers, Answers...
First off, regarding the AlphaNet news, the lawsuit against them is proceeding on schedule, but as we all know, these typically take some time to come to fruition. No matter, the fact remains that AlphaNet cannot offer the customer service that IBM can. In AlphaNet's release, they talk about being able to install and service next day, and set up a 800 customer hotline. What they haven't told you is how they are able to do this. If it is strictly in-house, then they are going to be spending an awful lot of money flying their people all over the place to install and service these centers. As you know by now, IBM has the capability to inplement these services nationwide, at no cost to USA Technologies. So, this news looks promising on paper, but I would like to see their next balance sheet to see how much they spent on travel...
Regarding the EDGAR document, I can say only this...that what you read should have no negative impact on the company at all. In actuality, it might have a very positive effect. The bottom line is that USA sent MBE a letter of breach regarding their agreement with the In-Center Workstation project that MBE had implemented. MBE is basically claiming that USA's terminals don't work. While there were some initial problems, they were fixed, yet MBE elected to go somewhere else for the credit card terminals. USA contends that this is a breach of their agreement, and unfortunately, I cannot comment further. However, let me say this, USA is very very very excited about expanding their relationship with IBM in a marketing sense, and while MBE is a great partner, to be "holding hands" with IBM will benefit USA both from a consumer and industry aspect. |
