To: Trey McAtee who wrote (631 ) 1/14/1999 7:12:00 PM From: Regis McConnell Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Trey, what makes you think that SplitP is currently in a viable position to make a public offering? With as far as I know only two customers currently, Peapod & Coles, don't you think that there is more work to be done in truly becoming a competitive software developer & marketer of e-commerce software? Two different business that are in two different stages of development, Peapod the e-grocer can now concentrate on aggressively expanding its own business while maintaining a stake in what 'may' eventually become a profitable software co., meanwhile the darn thing does not drag us down, as software development, support, & sales is expensive. It seems to me to be the right thing to do, to let both the P's have incentive & focus on what needs to do for each to succeed. Do you really want capital used for 'firewall' r&d ? Additionally, I don't come close to believing that Split P's value is anything near the branded identity that I see evolving from the e-grocery we call Peapod. Split P's success or value is already intrinsically tied to the successful execution of the current Peapod business model, & execution as establishing Peapod 'brand identity'. The marketing muscle will belong to Peapod, if it is successful, Split P will ride the coattails, not the other way around. Peapod is the marketable brand & its future depends on managements ability to establish itself as the premier online grocer, create brand awareness by becoming #1. I don't believe they could do that & be a software vendor at this point in time. The risk/reward, the odds for the success of the PPOD biz model are greatest now, most executable now; software development will take its own resources & biz models to execute properly. I think that Parkinson's phrase about aggressive expansion of PPOD's core biz tells what the opportunity currently is. Perhaps this is the best we can ask for at this time, no?
