Do you guys remember that ORCL secured over 25 "exchanges"? Ford & ORCL was the first one. Here comes another one.
Maybe "AIR-EXCHANGE.ORG , AIRPLANE-XCHANGE.ORG "?;
Oracle and Boeing in Negotiations to Form Largest Online Parts Exchange
Oracle Corp., the No. 1 database software maker, is negotiating with Boeing Co., to enter into a joint venture to create an online parts supply network for the world's largest jet maker
Oracle and Boeing in Negotiations to Form Largest Online Parts Exchange
By David Ward
Oracle, Boeing in Talks to Form Largest Online Parts Exchange
Redwood Shores, California, Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Oracle
Corp., the No. 1 database software maker, is negotiating with
Boeing Co., to enter into a joint venture to create an online
parts supply network for the world's largest jet maker.
Oracle wants to build an online aerospace marketplace with
Boeing as its anchor, allowing the airplane maker to track prices
and availability for the 3 million-odd parts used to make
airplanes, and to give its 31,000 suppliers the ability to see
and bid for parts contracts over the Internet.
The potential exchange, which the companies are still
negotiating, would give Oracle a poll position in what analysts
say will be one of the fastest-growing segments of the electronic
business marketplace next year. For Boeing, it could help the
plane maker reduce its ordering costs and streamline a purchasing
process that has been plagued with problems.
''This is a huge undertaking,'' said Dwight Davis, an
software analyst at Summit Strategies. ''The scope is so large,
that I don't think for a minute that these are going to
materialize overnight without a fair amount of grief among the
parties, but it's clear there's benefits that will arise once
they get these in place.''
The U.S. market for business-to-business electronic-commerce
transactions is forecast to grow to $1.3 trillion in 2003 from
$109 billion in 1999, Forrester Research Inc. says.
e-Exchanges
Oracle, along with Commerce One Inc. and Ariba Inc. are all
scrambling to create Internet exchanges where buyers and sellers
can trade in a transparent online market, providing more business
opportunities for suppliers and reducing costs and increasing
availability and efficiency for buyers.
''Electronic markets are public markets, and we want to have
lots of buyers and lots suppliers come to these markets,'' said
Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison. ''The idea is to create industry
exchanges, and we can do it for any industry.''
Oracle last month signed a joint venture with Ford Motor
Co., to create a centralized Internet parts supply site for the
auto industry. Oracle and Ford hope to bring other automakers and
parts suppliers to the exchange, and streamline the way the No. 2
automaker buys its parts and materials worldwide.
That site is expected to launch early next year, and the
companies say they plan to take their joint venture public with
an initial stock offering in the next 12 to 18 months.
Commerce One landed an agreement to create an online
marketplace for General Motors Corp. That site, which is designed
exclusively for GM and its suppliers, held its first online
auction earlier this month.
While most of these exchanges are still in the design phase,
and remain far from profitable, investors are betting that they
will soon be big business.
'Big Play'
Commerce One's announcement of its venture with GM sent its
shares up 23 percent that day. Commerce One shares are up more
than 2,000 percent from their IPO last July.
Ariba Inc. has made a business developing and selling
software that allows companies to create online exchanges. Its
shares are up more than sixfold to 142 a share from their initial
public offering price of $23 in June.
''The big play for next year is the development of these
digital marketplaces,'' said Marty Gruhn, an analyst at Summit
Strategies who follows electronic exchanges. ''By the end of next
year, if you aren't already in this game you're going to be out
of this game, and its going to grow like wildfire.''
Analysts say that the exchanges aren't likely to generate
significant revenue for Oracle any time soon. It will, however,
give the software maker a new avenue to sell its existing line of
database software and applications.
''If the auto industry is doing business on this exchange,
for example, a lot of companies that do business on these
exchanges would have reason to run Oracle software,'' said
Stephen Palfrey, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & C. with an
''outperform'' rating on Oracle.
Boeing Struggling
Boeing is struggling with its parts system after it
attempted to double its plane output to meet soaring demand. That
led to a shortage of parts and labor, resulting in a $178 million
loss in 1997 and lower-than-expected earnings in 1998.
A Web-based parts ordering system could have major benefits
for Boeing and other aerospace companies, primarily by cutting
the time it takes to build each plane. A typical wide-bodied jet
contains 3 million-odd parts, costs upwards of $100 million and
takes a year or more to design, produce and test.
It's expensive to keep so much inventory on hand for so
long, and online purchasing could speed the process. Boeing spent
$36 billion buying parts last year.
''One of the main benefits is better inventory management,
but a close second is increasing efficiencies in terms of the
manpower that's currently required to purchase parts,'' said
Peter Jacobs, an analyst with Ragen MacKenzie Group Inc.
Boeing Chief Financial Officer Deborah Hopkins has made
cutting overhead one of her top priorities since coming to the
company from General Motors Corp. last year. A ''value
scorecard'' she's releasing each quarter tracks Boeing's progress
toward goals such as cutting $2.1 billion in overhead and
reducing its number of suppliers by 40 percent.
Boeing spokesman Bob Jorgensen declined to comment on
whether they were negotiating with Oracle or other software
makers. He did say that Boeing is examining ways it can automate
its production line purchasing.
''We are definitely working in that direction,'' Jorgensen
said. He declined to provide specifics. ''How we're going to be
doing it, I can't comment on right now.''
Any venture with Oracle would have to mesh with an
initiative already under way at Boeing to automate how it designs
parts and tracks them internally. It plans to ditch more than 400
different computer systems, often incompatible with each other,
and replace them with an interconnected system developed
primarily by Baan NV.
Once the system is complete, scheduled for 2002, it would
allow each jet program to have access to the same bill of
materials and standardize a design process based since World War
II on a set of customized parts for each plane.
ps:https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=12255067
To: +WTSherman (12682 )
From: +Guardian Friday, Dec 10 1999 6:19PM ET
Reply # of 12896
it's all there newly registered .com sites covering a wide range of b2b vertical sites imo-company sleuth picked up the registrations yesterday. all linked to ford motors deal imo:
Oracle Corporation (ORCL) secures new Internet Domains:
AIR-EXCHANGE.ORG
AIRPLANE-XCHANGE.ORG
AUTO-EXCHANGE.ORG
BANK-EXCHANGE.NET
BANK-XCHANGE.COM
BANK-XCHANGE.NET
BANKING-EXCHANGE.COM
BANKING-EXCHANGE.NET
BANKING-XHANGE.ORG
FINANCE-XCHANGE.ORG
FINANCE-EXCHANGE.COM
FINANCE-EXCHANGE.ORG
FINANCE-XCHANGE.NET
FINANCIAL-XCHANGE.ORG
FINANCIAL-XCHANGE.COM
PETROL-EXCHANGE.COM
PETROL-EXCHANGE.NET
PETROL-XCHANGE.COM
PETROL-XCHANGE.NET
PETROL-EXCHANGE.ORG
PETROLXCHANGE.NET
RETAIL-EXCHANGE.COM
RETAIL-EXCHANGE.ORG
RETAIL-XCHANGE.NET
RETAIL-XCHANGE.ORG
What will be next?
InSook Prasad |
