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Technology Stocks : Echelon Corporation (ELON) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Agenda who wrote (2290)	6/7/2000 2:15:00 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3076

Another end run on ELON! Howcum theses guys are never invloved?!?: "General Electric and Cisco Systems To Build Networks Aimed at Factories By MATT MURRAY and SCOTT THURM Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL General Electric Co.and Cisco Systems Inc. said they formed a new company to build computerized infrastructures for manufacturing and industrial facilities, in an effort to boost productivity and efficiency on the factory floor. The companies provided no financial details, but people familiar with the transaction characterized the total investment as being in the tens of millions of dollars. The new company, GE Cisco Industrial Networks (www.gecisco.com), will be more than 80% owned by GE. The company, based in Charlottesville, Va., expects to start with about 30 employees. Most of the top managers will come from GE's Industrial Systems business, which makes electrical power products. The firm will be headed by Jeff Pompeo, chief information officer of GE Fanuc, an Industrial Systems joint venture that makes industrial-automation systems. Networking Skills Basic facts on GE's new company with Cisco Systems. Name: GE Cisco Industrial Networks Launch: June 6, 2000 CEO: Jeff Pompeo Headquarters: Charlottesville, Va. Employees: 30 (as of launch) Products and services: Network integration with existing factory automation and control systems; network assessments, troubleshooting, design, installation, and equipment support, including training and maintenance, and remote monitoring Source: The company Web site: www.GECisco.com The goal of the new company, executives said, is to make better use of the reams of data generated by factory-automation equipment and more closely link manufacturing sites to corporate offices, suppliers and customers. "What you have [are] pockets of information that are trapped on the factory floor," said Lloyd Trotter, head of GE Industrial Systems. Charles Giancarlo, a senior vice president of Cisco, said companies often transcribe information from factory controllers by hand and re-type it into the office networks that run the rest of the business. The huge manufacturing reach of both companies, which are among the nation's largest, provides a built-in base of potential customers, especially with GE's industrial suppliers, and gives the new venture clout in selling its products. Mr. Trotter said the partners would be "disappointed" if GE Cisco Industrial Networks doesn't reach $100 million in revenue within three to five years. Though that's a pittance to both companies, they said they see a potential market of $3 billion by 2003. Factory automation has been a long-time interest for GE. Though plans in the early 1980s for a big factory-automation business never met expectations, GE Fanuc has been highly profitable. The enterprise also dovetails with GE's growing interest in pitching its internal-efficiency and measuring programs, such as its Six Sigma quality drive, to other companies, almost acting as a consultant. For Cisco, the new company is the latest in a string of deals that rely on outsiders to design, install and maintain networks with Cisco equipment. For example, Cisco has taken minority stakes in the consulting arm of accounting firm KPMG LLC and European consulting firm Cap Gemini SA."