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To: Mark Fowler who wrote (6617)	6/18/1998 4:09:00 PM
From: Jan Crawley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Thanks Mark, Did not sleep much at all for the last two nights.. What an experience.

To: Mark Fowler who wrote (6617)	6/19/1998 8:06:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Wrong! Dispatches from the Front: Forget the Net. The Customer Is No. 1. By James J. Cramer 6/19/98 7:42 AM ET Boy, this Internet stuff must be driving people crazy by now. It's the reason the phone companies are merging. It is the reason the equipment companies are merging. It is the reason the entertainment companies are merging. It is the reason the search engine companies are merging. Wrong! These deals you see are not being done because of the Internet. They are being done because customers are demanding it. Customers are calling the shots everywhere, taking it to suppliers, dictating terms they were never able to dictate before. They have to because their competitors are doing it, too. I always fall back to the Wal-Mart (WMT:NYSE)/Home Depot (HD:NYSE) model when I want to understand what is happening. These two companies pioneered the new way to think in business. Their rule is clear: Give the customer the best possible product at the lowest possible price and promote the heck out of that fact. Any spare dollars should be rebated to the customer. That way the customer will come so often that inventory management will not only not be a problem, it will be a profit center, because your merchandise will turn over more often than you will have to pay your suppliers. This method works for one reason: critical mass. Home Depot and Wal-Mart are big enough that they can demand efficiencies from suppliers that formerly no one had a right to. Now cut to the communications industry. One sure way to save money if you are WorldCom (WCOM:Nasdaq) is to get big enough and then cut the number of suppliers dramatically and demand great terms. You can't do that if you are putting out hundreds of orders a day and are a small fish in a big pond. But aha -- how about if you go to Lucent (LU:NYSE) or Cisco (CSCO:Nasdaq) and say, OK, guys, give it your best shot. You big guys are pitted against each other. Deliver me a turnkey product. If you want to be in that room, getting that shot for that order, you have to merge. You have to be the one-stop guy. That's why Ericsson (ERICY:Nasdaq ADR) is merging. That's why Nortel (NT:NYSE) is merging. It is simple business concepts that are driving these mergers: inventory management, cost-cutting, clout of customer. The search engine thing has a bit more desperation to it. Some of the old-line guys simply haven't been able to figure out what works on the Net, so they are throwing their weight around buying this and merging with that. But, again, I would fall back on simple management and business concepts. America Online (AOL:NYSE), the success story out there, is a consumer-driven company, driven by ease of use. AOL has succeeded because it understood how hard computers are to use and how, if you are going to grow by leaps and bounds, you must make them easier. The reason Bob Pittman is so successful is that he understands making the Net fun and easy is what the game's about. Never, ever get so confused by journalists as to believe that there is some magic elixir out there like the "Internet" that is driving people to do bizarre things. This is business, same rules, same principles as always. No more than that.