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Technology Stocks : DELL Bear Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ming who wrote (1190)	7/15/1998 2:57:00 PM
From: Doug Larson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2578

Ingram challenges Dell's Web sales By Tim Clark Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM July 14, 1998, 6:00 p.m. PT Gearing up to battle Dell Computer's direct sales model, distributor giant Ingram Micro will host e-commerce sites for 200 of its top resellers, giving them their own branded Web computer stores with "back office" and commercial services provided by the Santa Ana, California, company. In addition, Ingram will let its resellers incorporate its technology into existing storefronts, enabling them to add sales to informational catalogs. The program eventually will support multiple languages and currencies, so it can be expanded internationally as well, according to David Carlson, Ingram's chief technology officer. The scheme could provide the means for small and medium-sized computer retailers to neutralize the advantages of Web-based direct sales employed by Dell, Gateway, and others. Surging Dell claims as much as $5 million a day in online sales. "If it's made easier for resellers, it will drive more volume through that channel," said Brad Haigis, product manager at Open Market, whose company is licensing its e-commerce software and providing integration services to link the e-commerce sites with Ingram's existing back-office systems. "It not only provides a valuable service to resellers, but it will provide a tendency for them to be more loyal to Ingram," Haigis said. "Ingram sees it as a highly strategic competitive advantage--to take market share away from their competitors." For resellers, the PrimeAccess program offers a way to compete with the direct vendors' on-the-Web ordering. "Dell is going direct to customers, but resellers don't have the infrastructure. Ingram is basically a dealers' friend to set up very sophisticated sites, giving the dealers a basis to compete," said Roy Satterthwaite, an e-commerce analyst at Gartner Group. "With large [companies like Dell] going direct to customers, smaller businesses don't have the wherewithal to compete," he added. "So they're relying on their trusted, 'old world' business partners to make them more competitive, to deal with the 'disintermediators.'" Ingram's move to host reseller stores--the first ones will go into beta testing this fall--comes under an emerging category called the commerce service provider (CSP). To date, most CSPs have been traditional ISPs or hosting services that expand into handling storefronts too. Ingram appears to be the first distributor in any industry to join the CSP crowd. But the hosting initiative isn't Ingram's only effort to cozy up to partners. In March, the company began assembling computers for Hewlett Packard, Compaq, and IBM, a move that also speeds up Ingram's delivery of machines to resellers. Ingram also runs an extranet auction open only to its resellers, allowing the company to unload excess inventory and dealers to scoop up bargains. "Ingram can do a double whammy--get rid of inventory and offer Web hosting services," said Varda Lief of Forrester Research. "The larger idea is what companies are doing with their dealers for stronger loyalty. There's not really a downside." Another Forrester analyst, Bruce Temkin, sees Ingram's hosting effort as consistent with smaller firms outsourcing businesses processes that are critical but don't give them a basis to differentiate themselves from rivals. "It's outsourcing your back office for electronic commerce," Temkin said. "It's exciting to see electronic commerce service provided at a whole level across smaller businesses. The people who turn to their wholesaler, like Ingram, turn to them for lots of services. Now it's doing the same with e-commerce, providing the scale to smaller resellers who can't afford to do this on their own." Neither is the current initiative Ingram's first effort at building storefronts. In June 1997, the wholesaler worked with networking firm 3Com to launch 3Com's storefront. But that effort could not be replicated for other vendors, and the experience led the Ingram executive who oversaw that project, Fadi Chehad‚, to launch an organization called RosettaNet to push e-commerce standards.

To: Ming who wrote (1190)	7/15/1998 4:00:00 PM
From: lin luo	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 2578

Ming, Thanks for the familiar arguments, again. I just don't have time to argue this time, I am sure someone will. I just want to point out that when you want to do (sell, in your case) block trades, you have to do it in the heavy trading todays because of the liquidity problems, it is not necessarily the stock peaks at that time. I am still wondering how a 19-year old college drop-out got this far in the world where people think they know everything. That is the real puzzle to me.

To: Ming who wrote (1190)	7/15/1998 4:55:00 PM
From: stock bull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2578

Ming, thanks for your very detailed response. First, let me say that I agree with your analysis. Why? Because I spent my career in the industry and fully understand the situation. Sooner or later, Dell will hit the wall of competition in a big way. Then, watch the stock take a nose dive...dare I use the word "crash"? <<If you disagree with my arguments, that's fine. I'd love to hear your counter-arguments. But please don't tell me that Dell will go up forever because it is your favorite stock. Even the best investments in the world aren't immune to reality.>> Second, is Dell my favorite stock? The answer is no. I never have a favorite stock...investing is a business. Fall in "love" with a stock and you become blinded to the realities of the situation. We should keep in mind that Dell is on a "roll" and the stock is climbing in a major way. So, its an investment that is worth considering...IMO. I said investment...there will be a point in time when one needs to sell off his position and go on to the next investment. Lastly, most of the posting on the Dell thread are from people who seem to have little knowledge of investing in the stock market. Of course, this is a very general statement and I could be completely wrong. However, IMO, the day will come when they are posting such comments as to...how can Dell crash...what happened?...hanging in there, it will come back...etc, etc. Again, thanks for the excellent response, you have a very good handle on the tech sector. Stock Bull PS: The key, and hardest thing to accomplish is the timing of these issues...that is, when to get out of Dell.