Coke Teams With go2 Systems; Rainbow Reorders in Growth Bid
Escrow.com and eCredible aren’t exactly household names, but they are the e-commerce plays of big insurance companies, and now they’re working together.
Both Escrow.com and eCredible recently signed an agreement to offer a credit package providing complete coverage for all business-to-business transactions. It’s a way for e-commerce companies to prevent fraud and defaults.
Here’s the background on the two companies: Santa Ana-based Escrow.com was co-founded by Irvine-based Fidelity National Financial Inc., the nation’s largest title insurance company, and Micro General Corp., which is owned by Fidelity National. Amsterdam-based eCredible Ltd. is a subsidiary of NCM, which is majority owned by Swiss Re, a global leader in credit reinsurance.
“As e-marketplaces strive to increase their volume of transactions, they’re opening their communities to unknown buyers and sellers on the Web, which can hinder the growth of liquidity,” said Russell Stern, chief executive of Escrow.com. “They require a trusted third party to manage the transaction settlement process, as well as a secure online credit and payment service, to mitigate the risk.”
In a separate announcement, Escrow.com said its transaction settlement engine has been integrated into multiple business e-commerce exchanges.
Escrow.com said exchanges in markets ranging from electronics to pharmaceuticals have integrated the Escrow.com engine to manage online transactions. Among these newly integrated partners are: Americas-Xchange, eHITEX, Tradeyard.com and DrugMax.com. Escrow.com said future clients are expected to include BidGov.com, BioBid.com, BUSauction.com, GalleryRow.com, LowestBids.com, PrivateVault.com, SellXS.com and XsElite.com.
Coke Goes to Go2 Systems
Coca-Cola Co. has inked a five-year strategic alliance with go2 Systems Inc. of Irvine, a provider of phone book-style, location-based, directory information via wireless phones and handheld devices.
The agreement calls for Coke to promote go2’s services among its fountain customers,including fast-food and other restaurants, gas stations, movie theaters. The two companies have estimated that the deal is worth about $30 million.
This pact gives a large percentage of U.S. restaurants free use of go2’s service. Coke is not releasing the number of fountain accounts it has, but the National Restaurant Association said there are 831,000 restaurant locations, and Coke is the most widely served beverage.
“Coca-Cola’s alliance with go2 allows us to provide the food service customers that we serve an opportunity to gain entry into the wireless space through go2’s nearly universal placement with North American wireless carriers,” said Tom Moore, senior vice president and general manager of Coca-Cola Fountain.
Rainbow Reorganizes
Irvine-based Rainbow Technologies Inc. is reorganizing itself into four business units. Two of the units are new: IVEA Technologies for the company’s eCommerce acceleration and performance enhancement products; and the Digital Rights Management Group, focusing on hardware and software authentication and security products. The other two units already exist: Spectira and Mykotronx.
Rainbow Chief Executive Walt Straub said the new plan is designed to maximize the company’s business opportunities so it can keep up with its 40% growth enjoyed in 2000. The company plans to hire as many as 100 new employees.
EFederal, GSA Team Up
EFederal, which recently moved its headquarters from Aliso Viejo to Washington, D.C., announced it has been awarded a contract from the General Services Administration for technology products and services.
The GSA pact allows for federal government agencies, the U.S. Postal Service, contractors, charitable organizations, international agencies and state and local agencies to purchase selected items from eFederal’s extensive catalog of computer and office products. The agreement encompasses all 50 states and dozens of international locations including Germany, Japan and Italy.
Emulex Looks Good to Red Herring
Red Herring prefers Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp. over rival of QLogic Corp. of Aliso Viejo.
“We believe that Emulex, at least for now, seems to have the clearest vision of what the future will look like,” said the magazine. “As a result the stock does trade at a hefty 80 times earnings estimates for its next fiscal year. That’s a premium to both QLogic and (Jaycor Networks Inc.), which trade at 70 and 35 times next year’s earnings estimates, respectively.”
The magazine liked Emulex’s recent announced purchase of Giganet Inc., saying that the deal brings Emulex closer to Network Appliance Inc., which has been a large client of Giganet’s but not of Emulex’s itself. The kicker: Network Appliance is currently a major QLogic client.
