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Strategies & Market Trends : Cents and Sensibility - Kimberly and Friends' Consortium -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bouf who wrote (46811)	12/17/1999 6:51:00 AM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 108040

ARBA mention.....EDS Starts Global Corporate Venture Fund of Up To $1.5 Billion For B2b and Internet Investments Makes First Investments in EDS CoNext(TM), Tradex Technologies PLANO, Texas, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ - Global information technology services leader EDS (NYSE: EDS - news) increased its commitment today to Internet and business-to-business (B2B) innovation with the announcement of its plans to form EDS - A.T. Kearney Ventures. This new e-business fund will focus its investments on Internet and B2B companies over five years. When fully funded at $1.5 billion, it will be one of the largest corporate venture funds of its kind and will enable EDS to take equity positions in its Internet-based clients, primarily those that are either consulting clients or alliance partners. EDS also announced the fund's first investments: EDS CoNext(TM) and Tradex Technologies, Inc. Plans call for half of the seed money for the new unit will be committed by EDS in the next five years. The other half will be funded by others, including clients and select private equity funds. Earlier today, EDS took another giant step into the supply chain of Fortune 500 companies with the introduction of EDS CoNext, a business-to-business netmarket provider that will increase speed and achieve cost savings in procurement of more than 50 percent of large-company purchases. ''EDS is doing more than just investing in B2B dot-com companies -- EDS is investing its future on the Internet and, with CoNext, in management of the supply chains of major global corporations,'' said EDS Chairman and CEO Dick Brown. ''EDS sees the need for innovative services and opportunities to be developed to help further its own offerings and to better serve its clients. The fund will foster the development of these services.'' EDS CoNext will harness the e-commerce strengths of EDS, its $1-billion E.solutions group and EDS subsidiary A.T. Kearney, the global leader in procurement knowledge and consulting. Founding participants will include 12 Fortune 500 companies with total revenues of more than $200 billion, leaders in the consumer products, financial and IT services, manufacturing, retail, utilities and telecommunications. The fund will be co-headed by Rick deNey, EDS senior vice president of Corporate Strategy and Development, and David Asper, an A.T. Kearney vice president. The unit will have offices in Plano, TX, New York City, London and Menlo Park, CA. deNey cited Tradex and CoNext as examples of the type of companies in which the fund will invest. Ariba, Inc., (Nasdaq: ARBA - news), which operates a Web-based transaction service for corporate purchasers, announced today its agreement to acquire Tradex in a stock deal valued at $1.65 billion. Closely held, Atlanta-based Tradex matches large numbers of buyers and sellers online.