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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TCBinAugusta who wrote (89674)	1/18/1999 12:03:00 PM
From: TigerPaw	Respond to of 176387

FDX - I personally have bought a few things on E-Bay. Practically every item has been delivered by - guess who - U.S. Post Office (Express Mail). I think the perception of FDX benefiting from the internet "boom" is way overstated. I watched one of those business shows on TV. Federal Express and Airborne Express both indicated that they did not want to be delivering one package at a time to individual houses. UPS was the only company that seemed interested besides the U.S.Post Office. There may be a market niche for small in-city deliveries who get a whole load from Federal Express and deliver it one package at a time. (There was also a big insurance issue as many people aren't home when the package is delivered and there is no mail theft type laws if they leave it on the front porch). TP

To: TCBinAugusta who wrote (89674)	1/18/1999 1:15:00 PM
From: musea	Respond to of 176387

TCBinAugusta, I agree with your assessment of IOM. FDX is interesting, but if you notice it didn't get my recommendation. I think that a lot of the smaller stuff gets sent UPS as well. Where FedEx shines is in the overnight shipping area. I believe that AOL has teamed up with BellAtlantic for bandwidth. Cramer (I think) says that they have enough cash to buy into cable as well - I don't have the numbers myself. I would have been more worried about ATHM before the BellAtlantic agreement. With the sheer number of new subscribers available each week, even if ATHM grows at a rate comparable or even surpassing that of AOL there is still business to go around. I think the jury is still out on this question, but certainly ATHM is worth a good look. I have a preference for companies with proven management and a record of earnings, so my vote is with AOL for now. Dell is the big gun, though. I'd still put $80K or more of that $100K into Dell. Thanks for the input. -musea

To: TCBinAugusta who wrote (89674)	1/18/1999 1:39:00 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

re: FDX - I personally have bought a few things on E-Bay. Practically every item has been delivered by - guess who - U.S. Post Office (Express Mail). I think the perception of FDX benefiting from the internet "boom" is way overstated. I completely agree. I happen to have done some work on transportation for another computer company in Austin and the current situation with shipping is this - Fedex and others bid on the entire business once with a weight based shipping schedule which represents some % off their standard rates. Once they win the business, they install a machine at pick release (tail of order cycle) which is a scanner-based system to communicate with the local fedex office. This model is great for the shippers because they essentially lock the client in, and start creeping up the order cycle with bundling options etc. (which are presented as benes to the customer but in fact cost huge $$ and create an anti-competitive reliance on that shipper). The computer maker I was working with had Airborne, and was experiencing shipping costs as a top 10 item on the bill of materials! And, to add insult to injury, Airborne decided to renegotiate their rates midstream with this company because the initial estimates were off - so Airborne wasnt making any money. There was nothing the customer could do, changing shippers is a huge amt of work. My take is that the internet will cause a shake out in this model because it enables online bidding for shipping charges as well as superior communication with shippers as far as whats coming down the line. The "one shipper" arrangements are already declining due to customer dissatisfaction.... and with the USPS and UPS in the mix now, rates have to come down. One caviat is the hub and spoke distribution model will be enabled, which is a substantial opportunity for FedEx only (they are the only one with an extensive network now)... and, logistics is flattening so the growth here might offset the competitive concerns, but its a tough call.