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Technology Stocks : CheckFree Holdings Corp. (CKFR), the next Dell, Intel? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Benny Baga who wrote (5210)	4/30/1999 6:13:00 PM
From: Rob C.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20297

Posted from Yahoo....sorry if this is a repeat. Forbes on CKFR by: gateway12_99 4450 of 4450 War over online bill payments heats up By Marius Meland Important battle is taking place backstage. The major players in that battle are Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO) and America Online (nasdaq: AMZN), which both want to offer their users the ability to pay their bills online. Wall Street is abuzz with rumors that Yahoo! will buy CheckFree. Both of the companies refused to comment on the rumors, citing corporate policy. But a buyout would make a lot of sense for Yahoo! and give the leading portal the upper hand against America Online, according to Avivah Litan, research director for payment services at the Gartner Group, a computer research firm. She thinks Yahoo! could kill two birds with one stone by buying CheckFree, which would increase traffic and loyalty to its own site while undermining the efforts of America Online. At the same time, Yahoo! would get its hands on a company that enjoys a virtual monopoly in electronic bill processing. CheckFree offers technology that lets users pay their bills and check their bank statements online. About 2.8 million people subscribe to the service, which boasts agreements with about 1,000 billers and 850 financial institutions. The company controls about 80% of the market for online bill payments, by far dwarfing competitors such as First Data Corp. (nyse: FDC) and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT). Intuit, which makes the Quicken personal finance software suite, took CheckFree to court over a still unannounced deal--probably with America Online--to provide billing services online. Intuit, which owns 19% of CheckFree, contends that CheckFree broke an agreement that bars the company from negotiating with a major Internet company without Intuit's participation. "My guess is that Intuit approved an earlier agreement between Yahoo! and CheckFree, but balked at an agreement between America Online and Checkfree," Gartner's Litan says. Intuit, of course, has its own agenda. The company, which is struggling to increase its share of revenue from Internet products, wants to serve as the middleman between CheckFree and other partners, skimming profits along the way. Intuit, which already provides content to AOL's Finance Channel, would like to offer CheckFree's bill payments via its own services on AOL, Litan speculates. A spokesman for AOL wouldn't say whether the service provider is in talks with outside companies to offer online bill payments. The problem for Intuit is that CheckFree sees less use for Intuit's services. At one time, Intuit was an important springboard for CheckFree's entry into the online bill payment business. Just a few years ago, Intuit's Quicken software enjoyed a virtual monopoly. Quicken is still the most popular personal finance package with about 59% of overall sales, but Microsoft Money represents a continuous threat. While Intuit's dominance is diminishing, CheckFree still rules supreme in the online bill processing business. In fact, many banks are frustrated about the lack of competition in this area. Most banks offer online banking free of charge to their customers. What the customers often don't realize, is that the banks have to pay an average of $4 per customer per month to CheckFree for this service. CheckFree has agreements with most of the big banks, including BancOne, First Union, Wells Fargo, Chase Manhattan and Bank of America, according to Gustavo Machado, a spokesman. If Yahoo! buys CheckFree, it could stop the online bill processing company from signing up with AOL--or any other competitors, for that matter. At the same time, Yahoo! would be able attract users who want to pay their bills and view their bank statements from work or any other location without the need for software such as Quicken or Microsoft Money. Gartner's Litan thinks it will take about two months before Intuit and CheckFree settle their differences. But by that time, CheckFree could already be in Yahoo!'s

To: Benny Baga who wrote (5210)	4/30/1999 6:41:00 PM
From: jerryriti	Respond to of 20297

>Bill outage could hurt CKFR> CKFR has handled this problem in a fashion which reflects integrity! Until now my most direct knowledge and appreciation of management has come from their accomplishments and my reading this thread. That knowledge is now confirmed by the excellent fashion in which they honestly owned up to the problems and set about making the necessary corrections. Believe it or not, management's integrity counts a great deal in evaluating the worth of a company. IMO the outage will be of no consequence. No denials, no excuses, just good old fashioned getting to work on the problems. If only Y2K were to be handled in the same manner. Let the columnists and analysts argue about whether it was a glitch or a serious problem; how handled, tells the tale! Good job!!!!!