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Technology Stocks : CheckFree Holdings Corp. (CKFR), the next Dell, Intel? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Benny Baga who wrote (6837)	6/23/1999 8:30:00 PM
From: Erik T	Respond to of 20297

I took from this, obviously, that the payment side would be different in the next phase. The Exchange banks claim to have started this venture in early 1999. If this is true, how long will it take them to develop a payment system? (Same question, new entity.) A long time, I suspect most of us would answer. If Citibank was in on this venture, I would be much more concerned. Now, if CKFR really saw its future role slipping away, what could they do now? 1) Sell the company to The Exchange, or someone else. 2) Stop providing services to The Exchange banks now, and possibly cripple their efforts going forward as other bill payment vehicles (other banks, portals, brokerages) move ahead of TEX banks and take their customers (their own research suggests that EBPP is reason enough to switch banks). 3) Do nothing and hope TEX never gets big enough to threaten the payment side of the business. 4) Work in harmony with TEX, understanding full well that this market is too big for one company to dominate. Monopolies are never any good, anyway. This move by TEX banks may prove to be very good, or very bad for CKFR. Increasing adoption of EBPP is good for CKFR, and I remain positive on the future, Erik (IMO)

To: Benny Baga who wrote (6837)	6/23/1999 8:30:00 PM
From: Charlie Smith	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 20297

Benny: I am afraid that the ultimate goal of "Exchange" is to start providing bills with the hope that they can take the payment part from CKFR in the future. This is the core of the potential trouble for CKFR. The "switch" gets its power from its two-way nature and the number of lines connected to it. If these banks can build a simple direct connection between their existing corporate "lock boxes" and millions of DDAs, they have something. They may not yet have a viable product, because marketing and service are an entirely different ballgame, but the market appears to believe they can at least build it in a timely fashion. Charlie