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Strategies & Market Trends : e-Commerce the Next 100 Months...... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mav who wrote (480)	4/9/1998 12:24:00 PM
From: AugustWest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2882

EHCO stuff.............. Click here for the New Mobile Pentium(r) II processor! <Picture>Electronic Clearing House, Inc. <Picture>Hoover's Profile Address:28001 Dorothy Dr. Agoura Hills, CA 91301-2697Tel:818-706-8999Fax:818-991-5973URL:http://www.echo-inc.comTicker:ECHO (Nasdaq (SC))Fiscal Year Ends:September 30ÿOVERVIEW Electronic Clearing House (ECHO) keeps hearing "net loss" over and over. The perennially money-losing Agoura Hills, California-based company provides check and credit card approval and processing services to about 10,000 merchants and small banks and provides the point-of-sale terminals used in these transactions. For years ECHO's auditors have questioned ECHO's ability to stay afloat. Chairman and CEO Joel Barry owns about 6% of ECHO; president Donald Anderson owns about 5%. Six other investors each own 6% to 7% of the company, mostly in warrants connected to loans to the company. Thomas Skala, who had been convicted of mail fraud in 1975, founded SNTCOR in 1977 to provide credit card authorizations. Five years later it changed its name to Electronic Financial Services. In 1986 the company merged with the inactive but public Bio Recovery Technology (which was founded as a petroleum research company in 1981); the resulting entity was named Electronic Clearing House. Also that year Skala was forced out after several million dollars were unaccounted for. He was replaced as chairman by Barry, who began trying to dig the company out of the hole. But ECHO continued to be unprofitable, despite a number of promising initiatives and the cementing of a long-term transaction processing relationship with Amerco's U-Haul. In 1995 ECHO began making money-order processing terminals for a US Postal Service pilot program. The expenses of this effort offset the modest profits that the transaction processing operations began generating after a vigorous merchant recruitment program. ECHO in 1996 expanded into processing transactions submitted over telephones and the Internet. ÿExecutives:Luana Jackman, Director Human Resources David Griffin, VP Sales, age 48 Alice L. Cheung, CFO and Treasurer, age 39 R. Marshall Frost, In-House Counsel, age 49 Donna L. Camras, Corporate Secretary, age 47 Jesse Fong, VP Management Information Systems, age 45 Larry Thomas, SVP and Chief Technology Officer, age 50 Jack Wilson, VP Bank Card Relations, Marketing, and Product Planning, age 52 Joel M. Barry, Chairman and CEO, age 46, pay $120,000.00 Donald R. Anderson, President and COO, age 61, pay $160,000.00 ÿCompetitors:Litle First USA Nova Corp First Data Concord EFS PMT Services National Data BA Merchant Services Total System Services International Verifact SPS Transaction Services ÿSubsidiariesÿÿÿÿComputer Based Controls, Inc. (point of sale terminal manufacturing)ÿÿÿÿECHO Payment Services, Inc. (equipment sales and leasing)ÿÿÿÿNational Credit Card Reserve Corporation (credit card processing)ÿÿÿÿXpressCheX, Inc. (check guarantee services)News News and Press Releases Press Releases News Articles Financials Stock Price SEC Filings Corporate Profile Contact Information Hoover's PPV - $2 ÿÿ Local Street Map Local Weather <Picture> Sales: 1996 SALES $ mil. % of total Bankcard processing 8.9 62 Bankcard transaction fees 3.0 21 Terminal sales & leasing 2.2 15 Other 0.2 2 Total 14.3 100 ÿFinancials: 1991 1992 1993 Sales ($ mil.) 9.0 12.0 15.9 Net income ($ mil.) (1.4) (0.9) (0.8) Income as % of sales -- -- -- Earnings per share ($) (0.24) (0.13) (0.12) Stock price - high ($) 1.56 1.19 1.41 Stock price - low ($) 0.38 0.19 0.22 Stock price - close ($) 1.06 0.38 0.88 P/E - high -- -- -- P/E - low -- -- -- Dividends per share ($) 0 0 0 Book value per share ($) 0.09 0.30 0.24 Employees 67 75 65 1994 1995 1996 Sales ($ mil.) 9.6 14.1 14.3 Net income ($ mil.) (0.9) (0.2) (0.6) Income as % of sales -- -- -- Earnings per share ($) (0.12) (0.02) (0.53) Stock price - high ($) 1.31 0.91 1.53 Stock price - low ($) 0.44 0.28 0.31 Stock price - close ($) 0.50 0.41 0.78 P/E - high -- -- -- P/E - low -- -- -- Dividends per share ($) 0 0 0 Book value per share ($) 0.15 0.14 0.18 Employees 57 60 62 1996 Year-End: Debt ratio: 22.2% Return on equity: -- Cash ($ mil.): 0.2 Current ratio: 1.20 Long-term debt ($ mil.): 0.6 No. of shares (mil.): 11.6 Dividend yield: -- Dividend payout: -- Market value ($ mil.): 9.0