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Technology Stocks : Brightpoint - CELL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John M. Allen who wrote (1564)	4/12/1999 11:22:00 AM
From: John T. Hardee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1999

Picked off of YAHOO. The Distributor!!!! Internet venture boasts big names Laikin, Flanders to sell phones online By John Pletz IBJ Reporter A few of the city's best-known investors and entrepreneurs are lining up a new venture to sell cellular phones and air time over the Internet. A group led by Brightpoint Inc. executives Robert Laikin and Mark Howell founded TelStreet.com Inc. in December and has snared as CEO Scott Flanders, former president of Macmillan Publishing USA, according to documents filed with the Indiana Secretary of State. TelStreet's business is described as offering "business telecommunications products, accessories and service to domestic and international customers through an online storefront." Flanders and Laikin are mum on the details so far. The company's private placement hasn't closed, but, according to the state filing, TelStreet had pulled together commitments for nearly $3.7 million from 63 investors across the country as of Feb. 4. The filing offers little detail other than to say the money will be used for general corporate purposes, including establishing a Web site and developing a brand. TelStreet is still in its infancy, trying to secure agreements with wireless carriers, sources familiar with the company said. Cellular phones are heavily subsidized by carriers, who give them to customers at a fraction of their retail price in exchange for signing up for service. The majority of the investors, and the company's board members, are from Indiana. Thirty-five Hoosiers said they will put up $2.2 million, according to the filing with the secretary of state's Securities Division. Seven California investors have committed $420,000 and nine people from New York say they'll kick in $284,00. Several people who plan to invest in the venture or have been approached declined to comment on the record, but said they were attracted as much to the people involved as the company's business plan. Laikin and Howell are listed as beneficial owners and directors of the company. Laikin, 35, is one of the city's most successful young entrepreneurs and knows the wireless industry. He founded Brightpoint, the second-largest distributor of cellular phones, in 1989 and took it public five years later. Howell, Brightpoint's president, also is widely credited with helping the company leapfrog from $589.7 million in sales in 1996 to $1 billion in 1997 and $1.6 billion in 1998. Flanders was arguably the city's most visible and highly sought-after free agent since leaving Macmillan Publishing USA in December. The 42-year-old Indianapolis native was president of Que Corp., later acquired by Macmillan, from 1988 until the company was bought in November by British media giant Pearson plc. When Flanders took over Que, annual sales were $23 million. Through a string of acquisitions, Macmillan's sales reached $500 million in 1997. He left the company when a planned spin-off to Dallas-based buyout firm Hicks Muse Tate & Furst fell apart. At the time, Flanders said he wanted to find a CEO job with a fast-growing company but remain in Indianapolis. Among the company's directors are several well-known players, including longtime local real estate developer Michael Browning and Analytical Surveys Inc. executive John Dillon, a former director of the Hoosier Lottery and state Department of Insurance. The other directors are Doug Bennett, who succeeded Flanders as president of Macmillan Computer Publishing, and George Schmitt.