Tuesday Report - July 3, 2001

The weekly newsletter for everyone interested in barter--the world's most versatile business tool!

July 3, 2001

Corporate Barter Company Completes $15 Million Second Round Financing

Argent Trading, a global corporate trading firm, has raised in excess of $15 million from investors including Sterling Venture Partners, Pritzker family business interests, Phoenix Life Insurance Company, as well as continuing investments from Sterling Capital.

Argent operates in 16 countries and is led by a management team with over 65 years of corporate barter experience. Gregg Young, CEO and Chairman of Argent, says, "We are very proud to have such a prestigious group of investment partners.

"The quality of our investors validates our strong business model and overall growth potential. We look forward to working with this new investor roster and to the tremendous value their relationships will bring to Argent and its clients."

Barter Industry Meeting In Denver
Analyses Industry's Progress And Growth

A group of industry veterans from the International Reciprocal Trade Association (Susan Groenwald, Stephen Webster, Krista Vardabash, David Wallach, Peter Korda, and Terry Brandfass) along with Joe Crump of Crump Barter Services and Bob Meyer of BarterNews, met for over six hours on June 27th, at the Westin Westminster Hotel in Denver Colorado.

The purpose of the meeting was to analyze current barter industry statistics, as well as to discuss and adopt a methodology for the future estimating of barter industry statistics globally. A full report will be forthcoming from the group and reported in a future issue of BarterNews.

Linda Zibell Of New England Trade
Receives NATE's LifetimeAchievement Award

At the recent National Association of Trade Exchanges' 17th Annual Convention, Linda Zibell, a veteran barter broker of 20 years, received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

Zibell has been a driving force for NATE as well as with New England Trade, and over the years has been a mentor to dozens of her colleagues.

Thanks to her efforts in arranging an entire wedding on barter, New England Trade was featured on the Oprah Show, bringing the organization national recognition. New England Trade, www.newenglandtrade.com, is located in Malden, Massachusetts. Ken Meharg is the company's CEO and Gary Oshry is its president.

Here And There. . .

Experienced countertrader, Edward A. Mazur, has been appointed to the board of directors of Trooper Technologies. The company has granted stock options entitling Mazur to purchase up to 250,000 common shares of the company stock at a price of $1.60 per common share, the options are exercisable until June 25, 2006.

Mazur brings to the company an international operator focused on developing its high technology business interests in Poland (analog and digital broadband network services), plus over 30 years of international experience in the areas of technology applications and investment.
Ownership of billboards were given a boost by a recent Supreme Court decision saying states and localities may not ban outdoor advertising of cigarettes and other tobacco products at retail stores or near schools and playgrounds.
A Swedish hostage (trucking firm executive) held in the Congo since May has been freed after agreeing to barter a truck from his company for his freedom!
Merger activity has plunged during the first six months of the year...running well below the heady days of 2000, when companies announced a record $3.48 trillion worth of worldwide transactions. (Fifty percent of last year's transactions were done on a pooling-of-interests, stock for stock, no cash involved transactions.)
The Internet was expected to put a big dent in newspapers' classified advertising, an important component of newspaper profit. So far it hasn't happened.

There has, in fact, been incredible growth in the classifieds. In 2000, classified advertising brought in $19.6 billion to the newspaper industry compared with $4.2 billion in 1980, according to Merrill Lynch. (Employment advertising made up 44% of that total in 2000, compared with 28% in 1980.)
FedEx has reported a 54% plunge in their fourth-quarter earnings... one more sign that the economic slowdown is spreading. They report their biggest decline in U.S. express volumes since their commencement in 1973. International express deliveries are but a third of the previous quarter's growth, coming in at 2.6%.
Look for new premium-movie channels in hotel rooms around the U.S. as Hotelvision provides hoteliers with another revenue source. Hotelvision has 110,000 rooms in its domain including Hyatt, Wyndham, and Omni brand properties.

Under the new effort guests won't be charged for the additional channels, as Hotelvision is selling advertising time on the cable networks—it has the right to replace the networks' ads with ones that it sells--offering revenue-sharing agreements to hotels that sign up.

We welcome your comments, questions, and observations.

? Copyright BarterNews 2003. Redistribution of BarterNews content expressly prohibited without the prior written permission of BarterNews.