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To: Tom Hua who wrote (30095)	1/12/1998 8:27:00 PM
From: dwight martin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

One of the international finance experts on "The News Hour" related that ONE QUARTER of the capital of the bank behind Peregrine (or was it of Peregrine itself?) was "invested" in the Steady Safe Taxi Company, in Indonesia, and that the taxi company's failure was what triggered the failure of Peregrine. Amazing - - sounds like 1897.

To: Tom Hua who wrote (30095)	1/12/1998 9:05:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 61433

Internet new-car buyers seen expanding rapidly Reuters Story - January 12, 1998 19:39 %DET %US %AUT %BUS %ENT MSFT V%REUTER P%RTR By Todd Nissen DETROIT, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The number of new car and truck buyers who use the internet to help them buy a vehicle could double in the next two years and hit 50 to 60 percent, according to speakers at an automotive conference Monday. Up to 20 percent of people who purchase new vehicles today are using internet buying services such as Auto-By-Tel Corp., said Peter Ellis, president and chief executive officer of the Irvine, Calif.-based company. "I'd say closer to 30 percent of the market today is using the internet today for some part of their car purchase," Ellis said. "The number is a lot bigger than people think." Ellis spoke as part of a panel discussion at the Automotive News World Congress, an annual auto industry conference. Founded three years ago, Auto-By-Tel now has about 2,800 dealers in the United States who subscribe to its service. After a potential buyer sends in a request form via the internet, Auto-By-Tel refers that form to the nearest dealer in its system. Ellis said the company several months ago reached its one millionth customer. The company gets 100,000 requests for new cars each month. This month, he said dealers will do about $325 million in sales from Auto-By-Tel, adding, "I think that's low." Another speaker, Scott Waldron, vice president in the automotive division of Reynolds & Reynolds Co., an information management firm, said the internet is redefining the retail aspect of the car-selling business. An estimated 80 percent of auto dealers will have internet sites by the year 2002, up from about 50 percent now. Also in 2002, dealers are expected to spend 12 percent of their advertising budgets, equal to $562 million, for on-line marketing. CarPoint, the Microsoft Corp. internet buying service, now contributes about $15 million a week in new vehicle sales for its member dealers, Waldon said. About 23 percent of referrals from CarPoint result in sales, he said. Reynolds and Reynolds has a strategic alliance with CarPoint. Also for dealers, the cost of administering and servicing internet buyers is much less than typical showroom traffic because of lower marketing and commission costs. In one example, Ellis said a new car sold the traditional retail way gave a dealer net profit of $238. For an Auto-By-Tel purchase, the net profit was $658. Ellis also said dealers who use the internet can push more volume through. U.S. car sales people sell an average of nine cars a month. In Japan, that number is four. For Auto-By-Tel, some dealers sell 25 to 30 cars a month per person.