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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (20003)3/29/2004 7:10:18 AM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 57684
 
Outsourcing boon for U.S., Zell says

________________

Displaced workers starting own firms

chicagotribune.com

By Greg Burns
Chicago Tribune senior correspondent
Published March 29, 2004

To hear financier Sam Zell tell it, this is one economic phenomenon that can only help America in the long run.

Outsourcing of U.S. jobs overseas is making the nation more competitive, in part by pushing former corporate employees to take a chance on launching new start-up ventures, the Chicago billionaire said last week.

"A lot of people are turning to their own businesses. That's spectacular for the U.S. economy. That's progress," Zell told a Chicago audience sprinkled with former executives scrambling to make it on their own. "Outsourcing is fabulous."

The cost-cutting practice of shipping jobs abroad has become one of the most controversial issues in the presidential election campaign.

Zell addressed the topic in a speech sponsored by the Duman Microenterprise Center and Loan Fund, to which rising numbers of would-be entrepreneurs are turning for help in starting new enterprises.

"We now have so many middle- and upper-level executives who have lost their jobs," said Arlene Shafton of Jewish Vocational Service Chicago, parent of the Duman program. "They're on their second or third downsizing, their second or third career."

Indeed, the evidence suggests that thousands of laid-off workers frustrated by the sluggish job market are starting their own businesses.

Last year, the number of self-employed workers rose by 421,000, to 9.3 million, up 5 percent from 2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economists say the United States is creating new business start-ups at some of the fastest rates in the nation's history, though critics of outsourcing call that small comfort for those losing their jobs to global competition.

Zell considers it all positive.

"I don't think you can ever have too many entrepreneurs," he told some 200 attendees at the Duman networking event last week.

Offshoring, as it is called, will affect only a fraction of U.S. jobs, noted Zell, who is chairman of seven publicly held companies, including Equity Office Properties Trust.

And the practice already has become so entrenched that high-tech venture capital will flow only to businesses with an outsourcing component, he said.

"Even if you don't think it's terrific, it's going to happen," said Zell.

To a degree, Zell was preaching to the converted.

"He really hit it right on," said attendee Thomas J. Schneider of Naperville, who has started two businesses since he lost his job running a heavy-equipment manufacturing company that was bought out in June.

"I don't think I would have done this unless I had lost my job," Schneider said.

"You get a little more gutsy because you have to. It starts off scary, but then it gets to be exciting," he said.

The ability to overcome fear is just one characteristic that entrepreneurs need to succeed, Zell said, along with a can-do attitude and the confidence to seize the moment.

Illustrating the point, Zell described one of his coups: The 1998 sale of his Jacor Communications Inc. to Clear Channel Communications Inc. in a deal worth more than $4 billion.

After federal limits on radio-station ownership were rescinded, Zell said he told Jacor's management to buy every outlet they could.

Within a couple of years, Jacor sold the lot at greatly increased valuations.

In questions after his remarks, one attendee asked Zell if he was disturbed that consolidation had "homogenized and diminished the quality" of radio.

As with outsourcing, the results were a logical consequence of economic efficiency, he said. And besides, he added, "I don't think entrepreneurs are that good at looking over their shoulders."

Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (20003)3/29/2004 7:52:54 AM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 57684
 
Company Emerges from ‘Stealth Mode’ to Unveil Breakthrough Content Database

marklogic.com

GARTNER SYMPOSIUM/ITxpo, SAN DIEGO, CA., MARCH 29, 2004 – After nearly three years operating in “stealth mode,” Mark Logic Corporation was officially unveiled publicly today at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2004.

Backed by Sequoia Capital, the venture capital firm behind companies such as Cisco, Oracle and Google, Mark Logic has drawn on some of the best minds in the search engine and relational database industries to develop an enterprise-scale database specifically designed for content.

In addition to enabling enterprises to analyze, synthesize and enhance their business content, Mark Logic’s flagship product, Content Interaction Server, is a platform for rapidly building content-centric applications using information not easily stored in relational databases. Today, this information is locked inside documents and business content including Microsoft Word documents, PDF files, Excel spreadsheets, Email, and documents in HTML, SGML and XML.

“From the beginning, Mark Logic has focused on understanding the content challenges of the enterprise,” said Dr. Paul Pedersen, co-founder and CEO. “Our approach to meet those challenges was: First, combine the power, speed and scalability of search engine technology with the proven business value of transactional database capabilities. Second, embrace open standards and leverage new technologies such as XML and XQuery. Third, focus on applying our revolutionary new technology to solve business content problems. Our vision is to treat individual documents and collections of documents as databases of information.”

“Mark Logic is fundamentally changing the way organizations interact with content. For the first time ever, organizations can access, combine, manipulate and extract specific pieces of information locked inside business content, making volumes of information more meaningful and actionable,” continued Pedersen.

“Creative, faster and more efficient ways of accessing and using information locked inside content and business documents is emerging as a critical success factor and competitive advantage for enterprise organizations and government agencies,” said Mark Kvamme, Partner at Sequoia Capital and Mark Logic board member. “For industries that rely heavily on documents and business content, such as publishing, healthcare, government and financial services, Mark Logic is introducing a breakthrough technology.”

Mark Logic Corporation was founded in 2001 by Dr. Christopher Lindblad, the principal engineer of Ultraseek Server, Infoseek’s intranet search engine, now one of Verity’s leading enterprise search products, and Dr. Paul Pedersen, formerly of Inktomi and Google. Mark Logic was initially funded by company co-founders Lindblad and Pedersen, with Sequoia Capital investing $6 million in February 2003. For over a year Mark Logic has been working quietly with marquee customers in the government, publishing and health care industry sectors solving highly complex and large scale content problems. (See related press releases: “Mark Logic Selected by Elsevier” and “Leading Medical Research Center Develops Breakthrough Content Repository for Prostate Cancer Research and Patient Data,” March 29, 2004).

Version 2.0 of Content Interaction Server is now available. (See related press release: “Mark Logic Unveils Breakthrough Content Database” - March 29, 2004).

To learn more about Mark Logic, visit us at booth #711 at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, March 28 – April 1, 2004 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif.

About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo
Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with a look at the future of IT. For more than 10,000 IT professionals from the world's leading enterprises, Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of their annual planning efforts. Attendees are responsible for more than $35 billion in IT spending for their respective companies, and rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use technology to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. For more information, please visit www.gartner.com/us/symposiumwestcoast.

About Mark Logic Corporation
Mark Logic has developed the first enterprise-class database specifically designed for content. In addition to enabling enterprises to analyze, synthesize and enhance their business content, Content Interaction Server is a platform for rapidly building content-centric applications using enterprise information not easily stored in relational database. Today, this information is locked inside documents and business content including Microsoft Word documents, PDF files, Email, Excel spreadsheets as well as documents in HTML, SGML and XML.

Just as a relational database allows organizations to build mission-critical applications on numerical data and “predictable” content, Mark Logic allows organizations to rapidly build mission-critical applications using enterprise content and “unpredictable” document-types. Mark Logic provides the platform for a new class of content-centric applications that help enhance existing revenue streams, create new products and services, extract value from existing content and streamline business processes.

In addition to a Fortune 500 company and a world renown University, Mark Logic, has already garnered a prestigious client list including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, U.S. Department of Defense and Elsevier. The Company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California. For more information, visit www.marklogic.com or call +1-650-655-2300.

###

Media Contact
> Kelly Schwager
Mark Logic Corporation
+1 650 655 2341
kelly.schwager@marklogic.com



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (20003)3/29/2004 11:05:00 AM
From: fedhead  Read Replies (5) | Respond to of 57684
 
I would say today's action in the market confirms that the
correction is over. TASR's incredible ride continues. I
like NVTL and AAPL very much especially if both of them can make new highs.

Anindo