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March
26, 2002
Reciprocal
Arrangements Cause Unease Among Investors
The annual report
of VeriSign, a Mountain View (CA) seller of Internet-security software
and addresses, showed $37.5 million in barter deals...accounting for
3.8% of VeriSign's total revenue ($983.6 million).
The company barter
arrangements were with IBM, Oracle, Phoenix Technologies, and InfoSpace.
VeriSign investors were concerned about the announcement and sent shares
tumbling 9.3% down to $26.42 on the news.
What does this mean?
The commercial barter industry has much more work to do in educating
the marketplace and changing the image held by many, far too many, that
barter deals are a sign that a company isn't functioning up to standard.
It should be the
other way around...when VeriSign acquires goods or services in exchange
for VeriSign products, they are making opportunistic buys at their marginal
cost of doing business. That's a positive, not a negative!
Turk
Barter Moving Forward Optimistically
Attendees
at the annual IRTA Barter Congress have seen representatives from Ihlas
Barter at every conference since 1995. The company has worked extremely
hard in educating the business community in Turkey to the benefits of
barter.
They have taken
a radical step, changing their name to Turk Barter, and have hired a
completely new group of college educated, English speaking employees.
Their corporate offices have been relocated to Maslak, Istanbul's finance
center.
Turk Barter is moving
forward with a national advertising campaign in the country's biggest
media outlets--TV, newspapers and magazines. For more information: see
their web site at www.turkbarter.com.
U.N.
Conference On Financing For Development A Breakthrough?
With 50 heads of
state, along with business leaders from around the world attending the
United Nations meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, an attitudinal change,
which could have far-reaching implications, took place. Namely,
that it is necessary to do more for the half of the world's population
that
ekes by on less than $2 a day.
Two driving forces
are at work: 1) The realization that peace and security cannot prevail
worldwide unless poverty, exclusion, and marginalization are eliminated.
2) Economic reality, recognizing the poor aren't a market and that until
poverty is ended there is no market to speak of.
Leaders closed the
meeting by adopting the "Monterrey Consensus," a pre-approved
agreement that urges rich nations to give billions more dollars in aid,
and calls for poor countries in return to battle corruption, adopt solid
economic practices, and spend the funds efficiently.
- A year ago
one visionary in the commercial barter industry exclaimed that trading
via internet-enabled mobile telephones would soon become a reality.
A recent survey shows that consumers enthusiasm for buying things
online, using mobile phones, has fallen steadily since 2000.
- Fred Detwiler's
Trade Exchange of America is holding its 20th Annual Spring Barter
Expo at the Southfield Civic Center. Scheduled April 10 in Southfield,
Michigan, over 100 exhibitors are expected.
-
Zurich Financial
Services has quietly dropped its plans for an online global insurance
exchange, after spending $515 million! (Insurers would have provided
policy quotes, purchases and underwriting on the web.)
The plan was
that Zurich, as its gatekeeper, would eventually collect fees that
would grow as usage increased. But once the exchange technology
was working, Zurich found it a hard sell among its business units...they
simply didn't understand it. And a more basic and embarrassing flaw
surfaced: nobody bothered to invite other insurers to do business
on the exchange!
(Moral of the
story, corporations are run by people, their assumptions and projections
are not always correct, so "sure things" and even huge
investments of $515 million, are no guarantees of success!)
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Former high-flying
tech companies will get some "windfalls" due to legislation
recently signed by President Bush which allows businesses to "carry
back" their net operating losses to five years, instead of
the previous two years. Cash refunds can be gained against some
of the taxes they paid on profits earned, going back five years
into the late 1990s boom.
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Attention trade
exchange owners! Knowledge and education about a subject are always
a pre-requisite to taking action...especially sustained action.
If you expect
your members to be active traders, and are perplexed when they aren't,
there's a good reason. You have neglected to provide the necessary
"education" about the many benefits of barter.
Admittedly,
most exchanges are deficient in this important area because it takes
a substantial amount of time, effort, and ability to provide such
information on a regular basis.
However, there
is an easy and inexpensive answer to the problem... purchase The
Competitive Edge newsletter. It's a camera-ready, 4-page, professionally
written, informational marketing tool...available in PDF format
as well as print.
Written especially
for trade exchange owners, it will be the best investment you ever
make.
For more information
about The Competitive Edge, and how it can benefit you, contact
Bob Meyer at bmeyer@barternews.com
or call 949.831.0607 (PST).
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Some 84 million
square feet of new office space will be available in 2002 and 2003,
a 2.8% increase in the nation's inventory at a time of anemic demand.
Merrill Lynch forecasts a 16.5% vacancy rate by year end, just 2.6%
lower than the peak of the last recession. Now's a good time to
strike a barter deal for space, as office leasing isn't expected
to make substantial gains until 2004.
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Air travel
is still depressed, as total revenue for February was down 23% from
one year ago. Traffic was down 11%, and travelers flying full-fare
or first-class was down 20%. The airlines are lamenting the situation,
suggesting that while demand is out there no one can make any money
at today's low prices.
- Learn grant
writing and fund raising from Foundation Marketing Institute. Three-day
seminar to be held near Orlando (FL) May 16-18. Registration available
on trade, phone 407.339.7964.
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