Dow wows Wall Street
The Dow Jones industrial average catapulted Wednesday, posting its biggest 
point gain since October
1998, as investors dumped high-flying technology stocks, replacing them with 
unloved drug makers and financials. Click
here for full CNNfn coverage. 
http://www.cnnfn.com/news/specials/eyes_on_market/

FreeMarkets in $325M deal E-business auctioneer buys online
used-equipment, inventory marketplace
 Online business auctioneer FreeMarkets Inc. announced on Wednesday that it 
will acquire privately held iMark.com, which
operates an online surplus marketplace, for $325.1 million in stock.
 Through the deal, FreeMarkets (FMKT: Research, Estimates) aims to be a  
leader in the business-to-business
 online surplus asset space by combining its online auction business with 
iMark.com's focus on surplus equipment and
inventory.
http://www.cnnfn.com/2000/03/15/deals/wires/freemarkets_wg/

Phillips buys Arco assets
 Phillips Petroleum Co. agreed Wednesday to purchase Atlantic Richfield Co.'s 
oil-producing assets in
Alaska for roughly $7 billion, clearing away a major concern of federal 
officials
 who had sought to block BP Amoco's $27.1 billion buyout of Arco for 
antitrust reasons. 
http://www.cnnfn.com/2000/03/15/deals/arco/
                  
Sema buys LHS for $4.7B
 Computer services company Sema agreed to buy Atlanta-based LHS Group 
Wednesday, in a $4.7 billion
 stock deal aimed at boosting Sema's reach into the booming mobile 
communications and Internet services market. 
http://www.cnnfn.com/2000/03/15/europe/sema/

AEP merger deal approved Federal regulators OK AEP deal to
create nation's largest utility company
 Federal regulators Wednesday ended years of  wrangling and approved the 
merger of American Electric Power Co. Inc. and
Central and South West Corp., creating an electric mega-utility supplying 
power to millions in 11 states from Michigan to Texas.
 The merger will create the nation's largest electric utility based on 
generating capacity. 
The combined company, to be called American Electric Power, will control 
38,000 megawatts
 of generation or about five percent of total U.S. capacity.
http://www.cnnfn.com/2000/03/15/deals/wires/utility_wg/

eBay enters B2B fray
eBay launched a new exchange Wednesday featuring such items as office 
equipment, computers, software
and other tools aimed at small businesses.
http://www.cnnfn.com/news/technology/

Robertson chairman resigns Investment firm Robertson Stephens 
chairman McCaffrey leaves in September
 Robertson Stephens announced on Wednesday that its chairman, Mike McCaffery, 
will leave the
 investment firm in September to  manage Stanford University's $7.9 billion 
investment portfolio. 
 In January, McCaffery, 46, was promoted to chairman, a position created for 
him, after six years as 
chief executive at the growth-oriented investment bank that focuses on the 
technology sector.
http://www.cnnfn.com/2000/03/15/companies/robertson/

Inference and WellBid Explore Ways to Provide Knowledge Management
and e-Business Solutions to the Oil and Gas Industry
WellBid Looks to Extend Its Use of Inference k-Commerce Support Technology 
Beyond Web-based 
Self-Service Customer Support
 Inference Corp. (Nasdaq:INFR - news), a leading provider of personalized, 
one-to-one sales, service and
support solutions over the Web and WellBid, Inc., the leading provider of 
online procurement solutions for
 well-related oil and gas activity, announced today at the E-Commerce: Oil 
and Gas -- Realities and Lessons
 Learned conference in Houston that the companies have signed an agreement to 
evaluate the development,
marketing, integration and distribution of knowledge management and 
e-Business solutions for the exploration 
and production (E&P) sector of the oil and gas industry. 
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000315/tx_inferen_1.html

pennNET Unveils Oil & Gas Journal Exchange at Houston E-Commerce Show
Context Integration Plays Pivotal Role in Building B2B Exchange For Oil and 
Gas Industry
pennNET (www.pennNET.com), a leader in creating secure, reliable 
e-marketplaces for business professionals
 in critical global markets, today announced that Context Integration 
(www.context.com), has
completed the integration of back-end auction technology into pennNET's Oil & 
Gas Journal Exchange site (www.OGJExchange.com). 
As a leading Internet professional services firm, Context Integration 
designed, developed and deployed a seamless
 integration between Ariba's Market Suite(TM), a leading-edge application 
which provides dynamic pricing,
 and Oil & Gas Journal Exchange's existing user interface and rich content. 
The solution makes pennNET's
flagship e-commerce hub, Oil & Gas Journal Exchange, the first fully 
Web-enabled producing property auction 
for the oil and gas industry. 
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000315/ca_pennnet_1.html

DownstreamEnergy.com Launches E-commerce, Online Community Portal
for Refined Petroleum Products Industry
- DownstreamEnergy.com has launched its business-to-business Internet 
solution for the refined 
products energy industry. This new e-commerce portal will give wholesalers 
and suppliers real-time product
 pricing, aggregated market information, historical market analysis, two-way 
communication, excess inventory
 marketability, and true integration of pricing and inventory data into 
internal scheduling and accounting systems via the desktop.
DownstreamEnergy.com's ``Integrated Information Online'' portal will build an 
e-business community where
both suppliers and wholesalers benefit from decreased transaction completion 
time, lower communications costs,
 increased liquidity, enhanced transaction efficiency and inventory 
management capabilities, and expanded
cost-effective marketing capabilities.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000315/tx_downstr_1.html

Energy Argus Inc. to Carry Earthsat Corp. Weather Information Tailored
for the Electricity Trading Community
Energy Argus Inc. has entered into an agreement with
Earthsat Corp. to publish weather information tailored to the electricity 
trading community.
Earthsat, in cooperation with Energy Argus has developed a set of temperature 
forecasts for the various 
power trading regions around the country. The forecasts use 
population-averaging and departures from normal
 to deliver an accurate indication of temperature impact on electricity 
demand in Cinergy, Entergy, PJM, New
England, New York, TVA, ERCOT, ComEd, MAIN, MAPP and WSCC. All the 
information is displayed on one page, 
enabling traders to gauge weather impact on power prices at one glance.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000315/md_energy__1.html

Made2Manage Systems Brings VerticalNet Manufacturing Content to
Customers Through New m2mEport.com Web Site
New Collaboration Provides Small and Midsize Manufacturers the Ability to 
Research and Locate Tools and Industry
Information that Meet Their Exact Specifications
As part of its ongoing strategy to provide small and midsize enterprises with 
the tools and resources previously available
only to larger manufacturers, enterprise business system provider Made2Manage 
Systems, Inc. announced today at National
Manufacturing Week that it has partnered with VerticalNet, Inc. to power 
sections of the Marketplace Center within its new
m2mEport.com Web site. Made2Manage will make available three VerticalNet 
Manufacturing and Metals vertical
 business-to-business market communities on its m2mEport.com Web site.
These include: machinetoolsonline.com, metrologyworld.com, and 
toolingonline.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000315/in_made2ma_2.html

InSITE SERVICES Secures Funding From Leading Venture Capital Firm;
Greystone Capital Leads Second-Round of Funding
 InSITE SERVICES LLC, the pioneering application service provider that fosters
next-generation utilities through strategic, customer-focused, and 
Web-enabled billing solutions, announced
 today the successful completion of second-round funding from Atlanta-based 
Greystone Capital Group, LLC.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000315/ny_insite__1.html

Iridium satellites may go down in flames 
Iridium, a U.S. satellite telephone company operating under bankruptcy 
protection, is on the verge of one
   of the most spectacular business flameouts ever--literally set to burn up 
billions of dollars' worth of
 Earth-orbiting assets.  Barring the last-minute arrival of a qualified 
buyer, the company plans to begin
 "de-orbiting" the 66 satellites that make up the world's first low-orbit 
system for wireless telephone service.  
 That means the first global satellite telephone network--variously reported 
to have cost $5 billion to $7
billion--would be vaporized as its satellites, bumped by their thrusters, 
plunge from 485 miles (781 km)
 above the Earth to burn up over the ocean. 
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-1573481.html?tag=st.cn.1.lthdne

Online stock trading goes wireless 
Add online stock trading to the list of Web activities soon to be untethered. 
Online brokerages Suretrade and Quick & Reilly plan to offer trading over 
wireless devices as early as next week, joining an elite
group of e-tailers and brokerages that are positioning themselves in 
anticipation of widespread wireless Internet access. 
Both online discount brokers, subsidiaries of FleetBoston Financial, will 
offer wireless trading services in
three ways: through Palm Computing's Palm III, V, and VII devices; over 
cellular phones with Internet
capability; and via pagers manufactured by Research in Motion (RIM). 
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1573506.html?tag=st.ne.ron.lthd.1007-200-
1573506

E-commerce firms hip to B2B before it was hot 
   Business-to-business e-commerce is all the rage these days, but a few 
consumer e-commerce companies such as eBay
   entered the market before it was hot.   The leading auction house opened a 
small-business exchange today
 where companies can buy everything from computer printers to nail guns. But 
the move is more of a change in marketing
 than a sudden shift in focus, analysts say.  Business trades have been 
quietly happening on eBay for some time, and its
 format inspired many of the exchanges that have cropped up, such as 
AutoExchange and Chemdex. 
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1573358.html?tag=st.ne.ron.lthd.1007-200-
1573358

NetTrends: Battle of the E-Marketplace
 Everybody wants to be a marketplace.
In sectors from cars to chemicals to food ingredients, companies are trying 
to join all of
 the participants into Internet-based markets for their industries in hopes 
of making businesses more efficient.
In some cases, they're taking the idea a step further, setting up virtual 
markets that
collect fees for all of the goods traded, creating what they hope are highly 
valued companies in the process.
Agricultural giant Cargill was the latest to join the trend, creating a 
market for the $300 billion food industry this week. The Big
Three automakers recently launched a combined e-commerce venture for auto 
parts ordering that they said would handle $500
billion in parts ranging from glass to semiconductors.
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/321401l.htm

Telmex, Microsoft to launch Web portal for Spanish-speakers
Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, Latin America's richest man, will March 21 
meet the world's wealthiest, 
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, to launch a Web portal aimed at 
Spanish-speakers from Canada to Patagonia.
The entrepreneurs will launch the Internet site ``T1'' from Miami, Florida, a 
source close to the organisation committee
 told Reuters Wednesday.
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/012407.htm

Allegis CEO Says Partner Relationship
Management Is an Essential B2B eCommerce Enabler
META Group Says 90 Percent of Global 2000 Companies Will Participate In 
Partner Relationship
Management Communities by 2003/4
 At the Credit Suisse First Boston etc.2000 eBusiness Technology Conference 
today, Allegis Corporation
president and CEO Dennis Ryan addressed an elite group of investors and 
research analysts interested in learning 
more about a new category of business-to-business ecommerce enabling 
solutions called Partner Relationship Management (PRM).