|
Sears in B2B retail venture
|
 |
February 28, 2000: 1:51 p.m. ET
Retailer joins Carrefour, Oracle to form first global online B2B retail venture
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Sears Roebuck & Co. announced Monday it formed the first global online business-to-business exchange for the retail industry with Oracle Corp. and Carrefour, Europe's largest retailer.
The B2B venture, GlobalNetXchange, which is based on software developed by the largest U.S. e-business software maker, Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates), will allow the retailers to buy all types of retail inventory directly from the 50,000 suppliers, partners and distributors currently used by both retailers, Sears said Monday.
Sears and Carrefour will both hold a majority interest in the venture, which is expected to launch within two weeks. Oracle will hold a minority stake in the new company, for which it will provide software, implementation and technical support.
The companies plan to eventually spin off the venture, which within a month will have its own independent management, employees and capitalization.
Combined, Sears (S: Research, Estimates) and Carrefour, a French company that operates thousands of supermarkets, deep-discount and convenience stores throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia, both purchase a combined $80 billion worth of supplies each year.
Both retailers said during a Monday morning conference call that the venture would allow them to substantially cut transaction and supply management costs.
The announcement is the latest in a growing list of online business-to-business ventures. On Friday, Daimler-Chrysler (DCX: Research, Estimates), General Motors (GM: Research, Estimates) and Ford (F: Research, Estimates) said they planned to form an online parts exchange with CommerceOne (CMRC: Research, Estimates) and Oracle.
Although the companies did not reveal specific cost savings, Julian Day, Sears' executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the new Web-based exchange will cost the companies $1 a day compared with $150 a day to participate in the electronic data exchange previously used by the companies.
Sears said other retailers would eventually be invited to join the exchange that will allow members to buy, sell, trade or auction goods and services over the Internet using standard Web browsers.
In midday trading Monday, shares of Sears rose 7/8 to 27, while Oracle's shares fell 1-9/16 to 69-1/16. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oracle
Sears
Carrefour
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
