December
19, 2000
NBC
Internet And Bigvine Complete Transaction Forming AllBusiness.com
NBCi's
AllBusiness.com and Bigvine, an online barter marketplace
for small businesses, have closed their transaction to
combine the operations forming a new internet company
focused on the small business market.
The
new stand-alone company combines AllBusiness.com's content
and user base of over one million businesses with Bigvine's
transaction engine and trade currency to create a comprehensive
service and commerce platform for small businesses.
American
Express, which has been actively marketing Bigvine to
its more than two million small business customers, will
continue to support the new company through strategic
co-marketing efforts. NBCi will provide AllBusiness with
television advertising on CNBC and NBC. Further marketing
support comes from other industry-leading partners, including
Delta Air Lines, and Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
The
former Bigvine shareholders, including Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers, American Express, and Kohlberg Kravis
Roberts & Co., own approximately 51% of the new venture,
while NBCi owns approximately 49%. Bippy Siegal, is Chairman
and CEO of the new venture, which is headquartered in
San Francisco.
AllBusiness
Signs Strategic Alliance With Roving Software
AllBusiness
has signed an agreement to offer Roving Software's Constant
Contact e-mail marketing software to its small business
users. In exchange, as a preferred partner, Roving's e-mail
marketing program will be promoted and distributed through
AllBusiness' various channels.
InterTrade
Releases VirtualBarter.com Version 3.0
The
new version of VirtualBarter.com was released on December 19. Information
and a confidential online demo of the new version of the Independent
Broker Alliance's online Trade Exchange Management system are available
by email request to: info@virtualbarter.com.
Excess
Inventory To Grow
A
growing market for the barter industry, as well as online auctions
and exchanges, is the excess inventory and idle assets market. It
represents a $362 billion market and will grow to $380 billion by
2002, according to a statistical abstract compiled by the U.S. Department
of Commerce and the World Bank.
A
new company, ESprocket, has developed a technology that mirrors the
real-life negotiation process, enabling customers to initiate and
complete all aspects of used-capital equipment transactions, including
negotiations, fulfillment, appraisals, financing, and inspections--all
online. Their web site has 30,000 listings.
Here
And There. . .
- First International
Bank (www.firstinterbank.com) is a world leader in the use of SBA,
USDA, and Export-Import Bank loans. The company has representatives
at 29 locations worldwide, including offices coast-to-coast in the
U.S. and internationally in the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle
East, and Central Europe.
Services range from basic payment guarantees, working capital lines,
equipment loans, and industrial mortgages to sophisticated international
trade, barter, and energy financing programs.
In 1999, the company originated $551 million in loans primarily within
its industrial niche, and closed the year with a managed loan portfolio
of $1.1 billion. For four straight years, the company has been the
world's number-one underwriter of loans supported by the U.S. Export-Import
Bank...based on number of transactions, closing more than 100 loans
each year.
- Bill Gates "Quid
pro quo" provided the Boys Club of America, which has clubs nationwide,
with $88 million of Microsoft software.
- India and Iraq
have agreed on an oil for wheat and rice barter deal that would facilitate
300,000 barrels of oil delivered daily to India at a price of $6.85
a barrel! (Iraq oil sales into Asia currently are valued at abut $22
a barrel.) The United Nations must approve the transaction under Article
50 of the U.N. Gulf War sanctions...in place since Iraq's 1990 invasion
of Kuwait.
- The Commerce
One infrastructure pact with Covisint, the online parts exchange of
the Big Three automakers, sees this key technology partner bartering
14.4 million Commerce One shares to both GM and Ford (valued at $630
million apiece) in exchange for becoming a key partner in their online-parts
exchange.
Covisint is expected to handle as much as $300 billion in annual purchasing
clout from General Motors, Ford, Daimler-Chrysler, Nissan, and Renault.
- Synergy Brands,
www.synergybrands.com, is a developer of internet properties that
strategically partner with off-line and online media companies to
capture e-commerce markets within the b2b and b2c internet arena.
The company has developed the following web sites: Netcigar.com, BeautyBuys.com,
and DealByNet.com.
They recently entered into an agreement with one of the largest U.S.
based media bartering companies to sell $15 million of its advertising
assets. As part of the agreement, Synergy has agreed with Sinclair
Broadcast Group to a modification of their original agreement of November
1999.
Synergy will regain total ownership of the BeautyBuys.com subsidiary.
Sinclair exchanged its 50% interest in BeautyBuys.com for $8 million
of BeautyBuys unused media inventory and an increase in its equity
stake in Synergy Brands to 3.2 million shares and options. Sinclair
is the single largest shareholder of Synergy Brands.
- Need more convincing
that the economy is cooling? Consider the latest absorption statistics
compiled by Torto Wheaton Research. Because of a slowdown in leasing
activity and a deluge of sublet space being released by ailing technology
firms, only 21.2 million square feet was absorbed nationally in the
third quarter of 2000, compared with 34.7 million in the first and
41.5 million in the second.
Negative absorption took place in such New Economy centers as Boston,
New York, and San Francisco. Many in the barter industry feel boom
times are just ahead (for their alternative financial services) as
the economy slows.
- The WWRE, worldwideretailexchange.org,
is an internet-based b2b retail e-marketplace designed to facilitate
and simplify trading between retailers and more than 100,000 suppliers,
partners, and distributors.
Consisting of leading retailers from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North
America the WWRE is open to all suppliers and retailers who wish to
use it. Currently, the exchange represents 53 retail members with
combined sales of U.S. $722 billion or Euro $825 billion.
- Follow-up on
December 5th article, "The Biggest Parasites of the Dot.Com Industry"
about placement of wasteful TV purchases by ad agencies, shows the
dot.coms have retreated from the Super Bowl.
Last year about half of the three-dozen sponsors were dot.coms. This
year only about 10% of the in-game advertisements will be for internet
companies. (A Super Bowl ad costs on average $2.4 million for 30-second
spots.)
- Our first ever
"Holiday Special Offer" is listed on our home page...you can obtain
a year's worth of back issues of BarterNews for just the cost of postage
& handling. It's our way of letting newcomers get acquainted with
the magazine. (We ship within 24-hours of when we receive your order.)
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