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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sir Auric Goldfinger who wrote (4730)	2/6/2000 10:23:00 PM
From: RockyBalboa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

CMRC lost 10 points on the bad news. Do you think it continues? Reuters, Feb 4, 2000 05:34 hrs INTERVIEW-Honda wary about GM online parts scheme By Edwina Gibbs TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Honda Motor (TOKYO:7267) President Hiroyuki Yoshino said on Friday his company was wary about joining General Motors' (NYSE:GM) online parts procurement network, despite a recent cooperative agreement between the automakers. When Honda announced a deal in December to supply GM with engines and to explore further ties, it said parts procurement was one area for potential cooperation, stirring speculation it may soon join GM's Internet-based parts scheme. But Yoshino told Reuters in an interview that he was sceptical about the potential for TradeXchange, GM's Web marketplace for car components, and that cooperation now under consideration on parts was focused on helping each other find suppliers in certain regions. "It's all coming across as a bit of an infotech bubble and (TradeXchange) is not an area where I see a great amount of merit for us," he said. He added that Honda was not experiencing any problems with high inventories, which the online marketplace aims to address. Echoing comments from Toyota Motor Corp (TOKYO:7203) officials, who are also being wooed by GM and a rival network planned by Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F), Yoshino questioned the potential merit in bulk purchasing of common parts. "While there may be a place in the U.S. market for a simple commodity car made from universally available parts, it would be a pretty boring car and that's not something we have a lot of interest in," he said. NO PARTS-SHARING PLANNED WITH GM Yoshino also said Honda had no plans to share parts with GM. "Our designs are completely different and if we were to start designing the same parts, we both would have to compromise too much, taking up far too much energy." Cooperation in parts would likely focus on Honda helping GM find suppliers in Asia and GM helping Honda in Brazil and other South American countries, he said. Yoshino said Honda is also considering offering GM's OnStar emergency communications system, which Toyota has already said it will use in its cars for the U.S. market. The system links vehicles to a 24-hour service centre via global positioning system satellite technology and automatically notifies the centre if the airbags are deployed in a crash. OnStar operators then direct emergency personnel to the scene of the accident. GM has also announced a major Internet marketing tie-up with America Online Inc (NYSE:AOL) and Ford with Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), as they seek to increase their online presence, but Yoshino did not expect any major tie-ups for Honda in the near future. "It's much more important to put our efforts into developing good products," he said. While he expected Honda's e-commerce activities to grow, the company was not planning to create a separate e-business unit like its U.S. rivals. Yoshino also played down worries among some analysts that Honda's earnings in the October-December period may fall short of expectations due to weak domestic sales and a strong yen. He said results for the business year to March would be in line with company forecasts. "The yen was slightly higher than what we first forecast but I don't think earnings will be too far off the mark," he said. Honda has projected a consolidated pretax profit of 410 billion yen ($3.81 billion) for this business year, against a profit of 520 billion yen a year earlier. Its shares ended higher on Friday at 4,080 yen, up 30 yen or 0.74 percent, extending Thursday's robust eight percent gain. tokyo.equities.newsroom@reuters.com)) ($1=107.60 Yen) Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service