Bob,
Please be careful about the forwarding of this epistle in it's
entirety. The contents might be considered inflamatory.
[moi? *I*'m not saying anything here, *you* are... :-) --RAH]
But
I recommend your synthesizing an opinion about it, and
communicating to the usual suspects. See my "bottom line",
at the end
Well, 1st Data Corp has made their move, and it's a doozy:
eONE Global, a new e-payments company capitalized with
$600 million ($360 in assets transferred from First Data,
$135 in equity investment from iFormation -- a GoldmanSachs,
BCG, Genl Atlantic Partners creature -- and a commitment
from the parties to kick in another $100 in cash).
The headquarters are in Napa (Rutherford). Remember
Rutherford Partners? With principals Robert W. Greer,
Scott J. Loftesness, Garen K. Staglin?
eOne Global has a Garen Staglin, President and CEO,
located in Rutherford, CA.
eONE Global has a Menlo Park office with a
Managing Director by the name of Loftesness.
Greer is also involved.
Brochure at: http://www.eoneglobal.com
Includes a slightly amusing and very gushy whitepaper
http://www.eoneglobal.com/whtpaper.html
(by Garen)
News at:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-3141623.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.ni
Oh, yes...and by the way:
"eONE Global welcomes inquiries from emerging payment
technology companies with a business plan they are prepared to
execute against. We require that a prospective strategic partner
have proprietary rights to the technology it is presenting."
See: http://www.eoneglobal.com/started.html
I guess this means Scott has money now.
Among the assets they own, or have and equity interest in are
SurePay, CashTax, Yclip, MeetChina.com, Reciprocal,
PassLogix, Achex, RRE Ventures (?1?) and others. In
reality it's mostly the 1stData/EnTrust payment initiative
SurePay.
Bottom Line:
This is a significant event, well capitalized, and an "instant
company" because of the the transfer of some FirstData
assets.
However, their major challenges will be
(a) they are already an operational company with a bunch
of realworld operating challenges for the management team
(who seem more venture, finance oriented), and
(b) they don't yet have any breakthrough exciting technologies
or products and need to acquire same.
I actually wouldn't be too surprised to see them buy back
eCashTechnologies, or do a JV with something like Spectrum
or Wells/eBay. I'm afraid, though, that (in spite of their brave words
about the need for innovation and new models) this venture is
going to be inevitably tied to the current banking structure
with which FirstData is so deeply in bed.
I suspect that Rutherford Partners put up a bunch of half-
baked intellectual property (as well as their bodies and
a great spiel) to take over management of 1stData's total
e-payment strategy. Quite a coup.
--- end forwarded text
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R. A. Hettinga