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Technology Stocks : CheckFree (CKFR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rfkc who wrote (2736)	3/21/1998 12:06:00 AM
From: TLindt	Respond to of 8545

YOU AIN'T GETTING AWAY FROM ME THIS TIME SPIRIT.... I TOOK YOUR PICTURE...... We should not forget that Citibank is also an owner of Integrion. While knowing the players is important, we should also understand what they are playing for. MSFT would like OFX to be the "operating system" of E-Commerce and lock up the middleware business in this industry. IBM counters with GOLD. Whose business do you think that MSFT really wants, CKFR or IBM. The banks are competing among themselves, however, a real threat comes from other industries, specifically brokerage companies that now offer many of the consumer services that banks offer (i.e., many banks are buying up brokerages). Citibank's entry into Integrion and MSFDC (if it occurs) is simply a way for Citibank to leverage themselves in both camps. This gives them some leverage for pricing and also they are almost guaranteed of being in the winners camp. The noise around this will be that MSFDC now has a bill payment system. This basically states that MSFDC could not develop their own, so they had to acquire one. Whose technology do you think Citibank's back end system is developed on, MSFT or IBM's? I would bet on IBM. When MSFT joined with FDC the comments were that MSFT would provide the technology and FDC the processing know how? So what now? Citibank is going to be the technology provider in this new venture? Technology is going to be provided on IBM systems? Is MSFT now saying that "dinosaur" bank systems are in? I smell desperation. CKFR has always been about payment processing and providing customer service. They are leveraged across the standards of OFX and GOLD, and across the industries of banking and brokerage. As a small company, CKFR is in less of a position to control the direction of the market, however, in a better position to respond to events.

To: rfkc who wrote (2736)	3/21/1998 12:51:00 AM
From: Robert Gintel	Respond to of 8545

You bring up some excellent points! It also shows how difficult it is for anyone on the outside, and not intimately involved with the players on an ongoing basis, to understand what is happening and what sense to make of it all. Citibank, a proud organization and considered to be something of a maverick in the industry, has to decide to either scrap it's pioneering and costly, billpayment system and admit that Checkfree can do it better and cheaper or find some way to achieve the economies of scale that could make it viable. (Wells Fargo bit the bullet early on and signed up with Checkfree) Can you imagine the egos and internal politics that must be going on and how difficult it must be for a Citibank to cross that Rubicon? Bank of America and Mellon Bank also with their own bill payment operations are in the same position. Bank of America is a hybred with all of their out of state branches on the Checkfree platform. Explain to me how Citibank can be part of Integrion, which as you point out they are, and at the same time be the back end processing platform for MSFDC? How can they carry that water on both shoulders when the parties involved are seemingly arch competitors? I guess what I am asking you, since you seem to have a working familiarity with these issues, is how do you think all this will play out? That may be too much to ask at this point?

To: rfkc who wrote (2736)	3/21/1998 8:06:00 AM
From: Benny Baga	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8545

>>>When MSFT joined with FDC the comments were that MSFT would provide the technology and FDC the processing know how? So what now? Citibank is going to be the technology provider in this new venture? Technology is going to be provided on IBM systems? Is MSFT now saying that "dinosaur" bank systems are in? I smell desperation. My understanding was that MS was to do the front end and FDC was to do the backend. FDC has a mainframe Backend, the transactions would initially pass through a NT server, the transactions would be churned by the FDC Mainframe. As for Citi, the true Danger is for FDC (as i see it). FDC currently processes CC for Chase, etc., If Citi joins forces with FDC, some of FDC's current customers will not be too happy. IMO. Benny (have a good Weekend!)