Leasing News

Lion Inn at Santa Barbara on April 17-21 and the new WAEL Annual Conference & Exposition which will be held during the International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 2-6. This expanded WAEL Conference will feature a major national Funding Source Forum, as well as, a Suppliers Showcase.

“Bill is VP of Brentwood Funding Enterprises, Inc., based in San Francisco. He is

a partner with his daughter Sara ( President of Brentwood). He boasts 27 years

of experience in the leasing industry. The former U.S.M.C. Captain earned

a B.A. from Colgate University.”

January, 1991 WAEL Newsline insert regarding conferences

http://two.leasingnews.org/imanges_uael_wael/grohe_bill.jpg

Today:

The information is correct and as you know I am now director of

membership and marketing for the United Association of Equipment

Leasing (UAEL.) I had a total of 40 years in leasing.

My second life is a continuation of my first. In my capacity as

Membership Director for the UAEL ( successor to WAEL,)I have the opportunity to help promote the Association I presided over 13 years ago.

I always felt that Association involvement above simple membership was important to the success of Brentwood Funding. Nothing has changed.

UAEL"s next meeting (UAEL Spring Educational Conference in Rancho

Mirage, California May 1-4 2003)is a great opportunity to network with

folks who do business the same way we all do. Airfares to Palm

Springs are cheap now and I would encourage everyone who has a niche

in the leasing industry to attend. The Desert is a great place to be

this time of year.

Bill Grohe

bill@uael.org

(Mark McQuitty, Preferred Lease/CapitalWerks, will be covering the event for

Leasing News. )

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Classified Ads---Jobs Wanted---Sales

Sales: Atlanta, GA. Consistent top performer, results oriented with outstanding sourcing, structuring and negotiation skills. Direct& vendor development sales. Mid-market and above - Customers throughout Southeast. email:w.t.dent@comcast.net

Sales: Atlanta, GA. Extensive experience, knowledge and success in the leasing industry covering several markets. Currently have a profitable book of business. Excellent sales skills and 19BII proficiency. email: flowageman@aol.com

Sales:Austin,Texas 24yrs exp.in equip leasing sales, vendor/direct, leasing high-tech to rolling stock. HP12C/17B. Small-Mid Ticket. Seeking Texas territory which can be covered from Austin home-base. email:GeorgeMinchew@sbcglobal.net

Sales: Chicago, IL. 12+ yrs multinational/ national sales & business development. Seeking role with captive lessor or global leasing company. Will relo right opportunity. Experience structuring complex transactions. email: leasingismylife@yahoo.com

Sales: Detroit, MI. 16-year lease veteran looking for opportunity in the Detroit area. Ability to bring on new accounts and manage existing base. Up to 60% travel acceptable. email:ebonbri@aol.com

Sales: Dallas, TXDirector, Business Development for international financial institutions. Global vendor programs with minimum sustainable volume of $24M annually. CFO and Treasury contacts with major technology and energy corporations.Email:tkorpolinski@ev1.net

Sales: Houston, TX. Experienced 20 years vendor development, direct sales and marketing with great presentation and closing skills. email: rwm217@yahoo.com

Sales: Louisville, KY

I have been in leasing/financing of construction, machine tool, and mfg equipment for 20+ years. Traveled KY, IN, OH and TN.Email:kyle90@msn.com

Sales: Mission Viejo, CA

Account Sales Executive with 10 years of leasing experience looking for company to bring existing customer base.Email:makelly21@hotmail.com

Sales: Orange County, CA.

Skilled deal-closer at above-average rates. Entrepreneurial. Accomplished lease-structurer specializing in transportation. Exp. in direct/ captive & syndicator environments servicing vendors, brokers, & end-users. email:originator@sbcglobal.net

Sales: Orange County, CA. 20 yrs. in leasing. Skilled,persistant marketing rep. Great closer on deals from $100K to $5MM. Looking for middle market company.

email: pauldriscoll1@lycos.com

Sales: Philadelphia , PA Seeking an open opportunity to advance in the automotive, commercial leasing & finance industry......... email: alexe362002@yahoo.com

Sales: Prairie Village, KS Have substantial deal flow and database of broker referral sources. Generated and closed over $22M LY. Seeking exclusive relationship w/direct founder. email:fiergl@aol.com

Sales: St. Louis, MO

Proven equipment finance sales professional looking for a new challenge which rewards success. Equipment type and location open provided you want business. email:amlifter@aol.com

Sales: St Lucie, FL

Sales, credit, doc. exp.w/top communications skills. Exp. large territory management from home office. Various industries; golf equipment, construction, ff&e, computer related, and others. Sales achiever. Email:David34983@aol.com

Sales: San Francisco Bay Area, CA

10+ yrs in middle market leasing. Seek direct lessor only. Transaction size from $500M to $10.0MM. Client base: printing, food, retail, hvy manufacturing. Email:edm173@sbcglobal.net

Sales:Scottsdale, AZ.

19+ years in middle-market-leasing. Concentrations in Medical/Manufacturing/IT& General in multiple geographic territories. Well versed in direct calling& closing efforts to C- Level& subordinate management. email:bill_peter@msn.com

Sales: Tampa, FL. 27 years experience. Very adept in bank lease programs and direct sales in MM/LT. Looking to re-enter the industry. Will relocate to Texas. Hungry. email: cwilliams@triit.com

63 Ads Posted at ( three found jobs since yesterday’s posting, added one)

http://65.209.205.32/LeasingNews/JobPostings.htm

( to post a free job wanted as, go to: http://65.209.205.32/LeasingNews/PostingForm.asp )

Help Wanted ads:

http://65.209.205.32/LeasingNews/JobPostingsWanted.htm

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Bob Fisher Goes to Douglas-Guardian

“Douglas Guardian provides nationwide inspections of equipment confirming that equipment is on-site at the lessees location prior to funding a lease. Customers have the ability to order inspections, status outstanding inspections, view completed inspection reports and generate reports on time service and invoicing over the internet by logging on to our website at www.douglasguardian”

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Houston----Douglas-Guardian Services Corporation announced that it has appointed Robert J. Fisher, CLP as Vice President - Sales and Marketing.

"I am delighted to have Bob join Douglas-Guardian> '> s senior management team. With his broad experience base and his prior achievements in the equipment finance industry, we look for Bob to play an integral role in the continued success of Douglas Guardian,." said Bruce E. Lurie President, Douglas-Guardian Services Corporation.

Mr. Fisher began his career with The CIT Group/Sales Financing Inc. holding various sales, credit and management positions throughout his 20 plus year tenure. Bob has been active in professional organizations, currently serving as the Immediate Past-President of UAEL.

(He was with New Era in Illinois, who became Datronics, and when

they went out of business, started Fisher-Anderson in Des Moines, Iowa.

When Marcap ended funding and then took of the portfolio, he

started Firerock Financial. We hope to have an interview with to

learn what happened to Firerock Financial.”

“ Bob will be instrumental in the implementation of Douglas Guardian ' s strategy is to be the industry leader in providing inventory and equipment verification, valuation and collateral management services through the application of its state-of-the-art technology, " Laurie said.

“ I am very excited to be part of Douglas-Guardian at a time in our industry and country when integrity and service are once again in high regard! Douglas-Guardian ' s management team and employees are clearly exceptional and I am looking forward to joining this team." said Mr. Fisher.

Douglas-Guardian was incorporated in 1932 and is a leading independent provider of equipment inspection, verification, inventory control and collateral examinations in the United States and Canada (employing over 300, according

to their UAEL profile.) Based in Houston (1880 South Dairy Ashford
Suite 220 Houston, TX 77077 USA) the Company provides services to banks, manufacturers, leasing companies and finance companies nationwide.

For information, Bob can be contacted at (800) 255-0552 extension 202 OR (515) 490-5824 and bfisher@douglasguardian.com mailto:bfisher@douglasguardian.com

--please send to a colleague and ask them to subscribe. We are trying

to build our readership---

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Day Two: "Stayin' Alive Through '05!"

by Jeffrey Taylor, CPA, CLP

Equipment Leasing Association Large Ticket Conference

April 27-29, 2003

Las Colinas Four Seasons Resort & Club

Irving (Dallas), Texas

“Lessors who provide financing to large, capital-intensive users of

equipment; debt and equity sources; advisors; project finance specialists; attorneys and accountants specializing in large ticket transactions."

Day Two:

Jim Meighen, PNC Leasing, opened the 2003 Large Ticket Conference with a

brief overview of the Large Ticket Market as he sees its. He shared with us

his many concerns of new accounting rules, tax changes and other major

obstacles in this highly competitive marketplace.

Although many large ticket arkets i.e. aircraft, railcars are “depressed,” he gave us five major items to be thankful for:

1. The economy will recover - no one knows when!!!

Technology has improved our ability to keep our costs under control

—or at least know more quickly how things are getting out of hand.

Even with a tightening regulatory environment, we will adapt and flourish

—oh,boy!!!

Long-term prospects look good

(meaning there must! be light at the end of the tunnel)

The U.S. has the strongest and most viable economy in the world

( but it could be better.)

Geoff Colvin, Editor & Columnist, Fortune Magazine and Co-host of Wall Street

Week with Fortune, said that there are two super powerful imperatives

colliding with each other:

(1) driving to a higher level of ethics while

(2) increasing shareholder value.

(Other oxymoron’s include:

Act naturally

Government organization

Alone together

Pretty ugly

Good grief

Airline food )

Colvin said that U.S. shareholders have been let down by senior management and

that trust needs to be restored. Competition has become more brutal as

"reverse auctions" continue to commoditize and knock down pricing. He

indicated that this is a strong "customer" market and that it may take years

to recover from the 90s binge.

He quote Warren Buffett many times and said that the most important indicator

of market valuation is the ratio of stocks held to the size of the American

economy. The number should be between 40% and 80%. Prior to the 1929 crash

the number was 109% and prior to the 2000 crash the number was 190%.

Currently it is 100% which is historically high.

Although the U.S. economy is growing at 2.5% we may have to wait a couple of

years to deal with the "hangover" from the 90s capex pig-out.

Note from Jeffrey : During the break I went out to the lobby to talk to

Geoff. He told me that they were laying off Editorial staff at Fortune due to

lower advertising revenues. As a result, they cannot cover a lot of the major

issues facing corporate America. By being more selective, they have had to

choose which issues/companies to cover.

Mindy Berman, 42 North Structured Finance and Gary Fabris, Bank of Nova

Scotia went over the new accounting environment. They said that FIN 46 is

causing lessees to either pay off or restructure their current synthetic

leases due to the upcoming June 30, 2003 mandate in FIN 46.

They reiterated that Synthetic leases are not dead. They do need to be

restructured so that title is held by an appropriate multi-asset company. I

concluded that single purpose SPEs are dead. Although 10% equity should be

sufficient (e.g. the old 97/3 rule won't work), the rule states that the

equity amount needs to exceed expected losses which could be more or less

than 10%. In many cases existing synthetics will need to be consolidated by

the lessee since the lessee carries the majority of the risk.

FIN 46 says that the party with the majority of expected losses or expected

residual returns must consolidate. Everyone is waiting to see how Dell/CIT

will consolidate since it is a fairly visible 50/50 Joint Venture.

James Rollins of Holland & Knight walked through the bankruptcy code and

highlighted steps that lessors can take to minimize risk. He went over why

airlines are filing bankruptcy (i.e. to lower costs in the areas of

personnel, fleet size, and labor). He often cited Section 1110 (Aircraft and

Vessels), Section 1168 (Rolling Stock Equipment) and Section 365 (Lessee

Non-Monetary Obligations). He also cited United Airlines as a key case to

watch.

My good friend, David G. Mayer, Patton Boggs, author of Business Leasing For

Dummies, talked about Managing the Risk of Terrorism : A Lessor's Primer on

Insurance, Structuring and Other Solutions. He concluded that lessors can

take steps to protect their investment. He reviewed the impact of 9-11 and

current insurance markets. His biggest concern were provisions covered/not

covered in the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002. He concluded that

domestic terrorism (i.e. Oklahoma City) was not covered while 9-11 was.

He also stated that lessors should carefully review their exposures for

potential negligence on the part of the lessee where courts could hold the

lessor (passive owner) liable. He cited a case where a lessor/landlord knew

that fuel was stored on a lessee premise and was held liable because they the

lessor "failed to prevent harm when the lessor knew or should have known of

conditions leading to tort claims".

Jeffrey Taylor

ExecutiveCaliber - Global Lease Training

2144 South 1150 East

Bountiful, UT 84010 USA

(801) 299-9332

(801) 299-9932 (fax)

JTaylor@executivecaliber.ws

Jeffrey Taylor is the best selling author of "Leasing in a Tough Economy"

and well-known lease accountant, educator, "trainer" and writer.

http://two.leasingnews.org/Books_Direct.htm#selling

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Fitch Finance & Leasing Company Annual Year End 2002 Report

Yesterday we reported that Fitch had completed its annual review of U.S. Finance Company risk-based capitalization. The results of Fitch's analysis have been published in the report titled 'Finance Company Capital Standards - 2003'.

Several readers asked for a copy of the full report. Here is a “pdf” download

address:

http://www.fitchratings.com/corporate/reports/report.cfm?rpt_id=171198

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### Press Release #######################################

Allegiant Partners Incorporated Announces New Credit Facility

Allegiant Partners Incorporated, a direct funding source specializing in

story credits between $30,000 and $250,000, has signed a new revolving and

term financing agreement with its primary San Francisco-based bank. The new

facility brings its total credit with its primary lender to nearly $10

million. Allegiant Partners and its subsidiary Allegiant Capital have

raised $9 million in incremental recourse bank credit over the past six

months.

“Allegiant Partners has the capital it needs to continue to grow its

portfolio over the next twelve months,” stated Chris Enbom, President. “We

are increasing our marketing presence within the leasing community to

maintain the strong portfolio growth we have enjoyed over the past four

years. Allegiant Partners, like all other direct funding sources in the

leasing market, has continued to lower rates over the last year in response

to market pressures. We have also broadened the industry and equipment

types we are willing to finance in order to diversify our portfolio.”

For further information regarding Allegiant Partners, please contact Chris

Enbom at 415-257-4200 x 201 (cenbom@allegiant-partners.com ) or Doug Houlahan at 415-257-4200 x 205 or see www.allegiant-partners.com.

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“Good Things Are Happening...” in the marketplace

In up-dating our general leasing software , we contacted Randy Haug of

Leaseteam, who wrote:

By the way as a follow up to my email to you a couple of weeks ago. We are

finding good opportunities out there in the marketplace for us and our

clients as well. It's really coming in 2 forms. 1.

From our existing customers, they are investing in many new software tools like our web based front-end origination system, getting ready for the upswing in business that most of our clients feel is coming. They are also, spending money

improving how they use the software tools they have acquired over the years

to make sure they are getting the most productivity as they can from there

systems investments.

It's what you see from forward thinking lessors that want to be ready to take full advantage of the next economic up cycle that they feel is coming. 2. Other is a up tick in new systems sales to new lessors...yes Kit.... New lessors are coming back into the market... maybe not new but rather seasoned veterans starting up with new funding partners and others that were brokering are getting lines of credit and are in need of new systems too, as well as savvy veteran lessors that are looking to

reinvest in new systems that can deliver improved functionality,

productivity and proven ROI.

It's still very competitive, but there is business out there for those that want to work hard at it and be a valued business partner to your clients in any business. Good things are happening out there...believe me!!!

Best regards,

Randy Haug

Sr. Vice President

LeaseTeam, Inc.

(800)531-5086 x 1014

(We asked him if we could quote from the e-mail:)

You can certainly use my quote ...with my name

always. I really believe things are going to be getting much better in the

marketplace.

Best regards,

Randy Haug

LeaseTeam, Inc.

(800)531-5086 x 1014

Year Founded: 1989 (January)

Number of Employees: 60

CEO name: No CEO/ Privately held co.

Principals:

Russ Hallberg, President

Randy Haug, Senior Vice President

Additional Services Offered:

Products:

LeaseTeam is a full service provider of software and services to assist small, middle and large ticket equipment lessors. Since our inception, LeaseTeam has been dedicated to the equipment leasing software industry. Our turnkey solutions - Lease Sales Manager and LeasePlus - are the choice of established leasing companies and banks throughout North America, making LeaseTeam a trusted leader in the equipment leasing software industry.

LeasePlus^TM, lease accounting and equipment asset management software.

Lease Sales Manager^TM, leasing and financial services front-end system. Our Lease Sales Manager product focuses on automating and managing the front-end operations of a leasing company with functionality including pricing, quote generation, application submittal, pre-credit decisions, electronic credit report pulls, credit scoring or analysis, automated documentation and integration with your back-end system, Info Lease. Your front-end process(s) can be defined in the workflow so that everyone knows what they are responsible at any point in time. Lease Sales Manager workflow also provides metrics for measuring turnaround times for the entire process or for specific steps in the process.

RDS^TM, reporting database system.

In conjunction with the aforementioned software solutions, we offer licensing options that include in-house licensing, running from the clients’ hardware- at the clients’ site; and ASP hosting of all LeaseTeam applications.

Partnerships

LeaseTeam has historically identified "best of breed" software solutions that are complimentary with our products and entered into strategic relationships with those companies in order to provide the most cost effective total solution for our customers. We feel that this is particularly important in functional areas that span different industries and are not unique to equipment leasing. LeaseTeam currently has relationships with the following "best of breed" products:

* Microsoft Great Plains (Financial Accounting)

* Crystal Reports (Ad hoc Report Writing)

* Crystal Enterprise (Report Distribution)

* Vertex (Sales Tax)

* TaxWare (Sales Tax)

* PTMS (Property Tax)

* CBIZ (Property Tax)

* UCC Direct (UCC Filing)

* American Lease Insurance (Insurance)

* Premier Lease & Loan Services (Insurance)

* Microbilt (Business and Consumer Credit Bureau Report Retrieval)

* MelissaData (Address Validation)

* PayNet (Credit Reports)

Onsite and Virtual Client Services:

Software installation and implementation services.

Data conversion services.

Project Management services and Leasing System Consulting.

Best Practices Consulting.

Custom Reporting.

Knowledge Transfer:

We offer LeasePlus^TM, Microsoft Great Plains^TM and Crystal Reports^TM training monthly at our headquarters and as-needed, onsite at our customer's offices throughout the United States and Canada. In addition to regularly scheduled training workshops, LeaseTeam holds an annual client conference in Omaha, Nebraska. The LeaseTeam client conference brings together a comprehensive grouping of Senior IT, Finance and Corporate Executives from successful leasing companies together with the experts within LeaseTeam and leading vendors to offer hands-on training as well as networking opportunities. LeaseTeam is preparing for it's 14th annual conference, which is attended by more than 100 participants each year.

Application Support:

Telephone support and online "customer only" section of our website provide direction and instruction to new and existing users of our products. Additionally, we provide ongoing product enhancement via software updates.

Technical Support:

We offer technical troubleshooting and start-up assistance to users of varying abilities, from IT Managers to Accountants.

Yearly Volume: $10MM

Major Clients:

LeaseTeam products have installed base of approximately 300 leasing and commercial finance companies throughout the U.S. and Canada. Our organization possesses a wide variety of exposure to leasing operations including pricing, credit operation, documentation, accounting, collections and portfolio and asset management with a wide variety of types of leasing companies using our products from micro-ticket through large-ticket.

Some of our key clients include:

MATSCO Financial Corporation

IFC Credit Corporation / First Corp

Verizon Credit

Popular Leasing

Volvo Commercial Finance, LLC

Information Leasing Corporation

HPSC

Relational Funding Corporation

Eplus Group, Inc.

ICX Corporation

All Points Capital Corporation

Heartland Business Credit

Raymond Leasing Corporation

Americorp Financial, Inc.

ICX Corporation

Balboa Capital Corporation

Alter Moneta Corporation

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Boyle Named CFO at Banknorth Group

PORTLAND, Maine----Banknorth Group, Inc. (NYSE:BNK) has named Controller Stephen J. Boyle its new Chief Financial Officer. Boyle will continue to report to Chief Operating Officer Peter J. Verrill. Mr. Verrill formerly held both posts.

Mr. Boyle has served as Controller of Banknorth since 1997. He was formerly Director of Financial Reporting at Barnett Banks, Inc. in Florida and Manager of Corporate Accounting of Fleet Financial Group, Inc. in Providence, Rhode Island.

William J. Ryan, Banknorth Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, said that the growth of Banknorth in the last several years to a $26 billion company requires an expanded team at the senior management level. He said that Mr. Boyle's experience at large financial institutions before joining Banknorth will be of great value.

"Having Steve take over the management of the key functions of the finance area allows Peter to focus on "big picture" issues such as the strategic direction of our Company, mergers and acquisitions and technology advancements," said Mr. Ryan. "Peter will continue to provide overall direction to the Company's financial management."

Mr. Verrill's direct reporting areas include Mergers and Acquisitions, Risk Management, Asset/Liability Management, Technology and Strategic Planning, as well as Finance.

"Steve has been indispensable since arriving here," said Mr. Verrill. "His heightened responsibilities as CFO will be of great value as we tackle the challenges of operating in an expanded footprint."

Mr. Boyle holds a BA in Economics from Wake Forest University and an MS in Accounting from New York University Business School. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and serves on numerous civic boards.

He and his wife, Eileen, reside in York Harbor, Maine with their three sons.

Banknorth Group, Inc., headquartered in Portland, Maine, is a $26.3 billion banking and financial services company. The Company's banking subsidiary, Banknorth, N.A. operates banking divisions in Connecticut (Banknorth Connecticut), Maine (Peoples Heritage Bank), Massachusetts (Banknorth Massachusetts), New Hampshire (Bank of New Hampshire), New York (Evergreen Bank) and Vermont (Banknorth Vermont). The company also operates subsidiaries and divisions in insurance, investment planning, trust and investments services, leasing, merchant services, mortgage banking, government banking and other financial services.

CONTACT:

Banknorth Group, Inc.

Brian Arsenault, 207/761-8517

SOURCE: Banknorth Group, Inc.

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Edmunds.com Reports Automakers' True Cost of Incentives: Domestic Incentives Surpass $3000 Per Vehicle While Market Share Nears Record Low; SUV Incentives Soar

SANTA MONICA, Calif.,-- Edmunds.com ( http://www.edmunds.com ), the premier online resource for automotive information, reported today that the average manufacturer incentive per vehicle sold in the United States was $2,235 in March 2003, up $536 or 31.6% from March 2002, and up $100 or 4.7% from February 2003.

Edmunds.com's monthly True Cost of Incentives(SM) report takes into account all of the manufacturers' various incentives programs, including subvented interest rates and lease programs as well as cash rebates to consumers and dealers. To assure the greatest possible accuracy, Edmunds.com bases its calculations on sales volume, including the mix of vehicle makes and models for each month, as well as on the proportion of vehicles for which each type of incentive was used.

Incentives spending for domestic Chrysler, Ford and General Motors nameplates averaged $3,007 per vehicle, up 4% from February 2003 and up 36% from March 2002. Despite this increase, the total U.S. market share of the domestics was 59.4% in March 2003, one of its lowest recorded levels.

The luxury SUV segment continues to have the lowest incentives per vehicle, but that distinction narrowed in March as this segment experienced the greatest month-to-month increase. Luxury SUV incentives rose 43% from $940 per unit in February 2003 to $1,345 in March 2003. Simultaneously, luxury SUV sales went up 12.6%.

Incentives for the large SUV segment increased 28% from $2,446 per unit in February to $3,131 in March, but the market share of the large SUV segment did not materially increase.

Lexus and Land Rover each more than doubled their incentives spending last month compared to February, spending $1,128 and $964, respectively, per unit in March. In the same period, Lexus experienced a 13.9% market share increase while Land Rover had a 7% decrease.

On average, vehicles sold 64 days after arriving on dealer lots in March 2003 compared to 50 days in March 2002, reflecting a slower sales cycle. The shortest "days to turn" was recorded for GM's Hummer, at 21 days, and BMW's MINI, at 25 days, while Isuzu and Suzuki were at the other end of the spectrum at 117 and 99 days, respectively.

"In March, incentives increased across the board," stated Dr. Jane Liu, Executive Director of Data Analysis for Edmunds.com. "Most manufacturers were dragged into the game to stay competitive and move their aging inventory, especially less fuel efficient vehicles."

About Edmunds.com True Cost of Incentives(SM) (TCI(SM))

Edmunds.com's TCI(SM) is a comprehensive monthly report that measures automobile manufacturers' cost of incentives on vehicles sold in the United States. These costs are reported on a per vehicle basis for the industry as a whole, for each manufacturer, for each make sold by each manufacturer and for each model of each make. TCI covers all aspects of manufacturers' various incentives programs (except volume and similar bonus programs), including dealer cash, manufacturer rebates and consumer savings from subvented APR and lease programs (including subvented lease residual values used in manufacturer leasing programs). Data for the industry, the manufacturers and the makes are derived using weighted averages and are based on actual monthly sales and financing activity.

About Edmunds.com, Inc.

Edmunds.com ( http://www.edmunds.com ) is the premier online resource for automotive information. Its comprehensive set of data, tools and services, including Edmunds.com True Market Value(R) pricing, is generated by Edmunds Data Services and is licensed to third parties. For example, the company supplies over 800,000 pages of content for NYTimes.com's auto section and delivers monthly data reports to Morgan Stanley. Edmunds.com was named "best car research" site by Forbes ASAP, is viewed by consumers as the "most useful Web site" according to the J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Studies(SM) for both 2001 and 2002, and was ranked first in the Survey of Car- Shopping Web Sites as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and maintains a satellite office in Troy, Michigan.

SOURCE Edmunds.com, Inc.

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Spam Becomes Public Enemy #1

By Mark Berniker Internetnews.com

Although they all have different policies to combat the problem, AOL Time Warner (Quote, Company Info), Microsoft Corp. (Quote, Company Info) and Yahoo (Quote, Company Info) announced on Monday that they plan to "join forces against spam."

In a joint statement, the three companies that are traditionally bitter rivals said they "will initiate an open dialogue that will include organizations across this industry to drive technical standards and industry guidelines that can be adopted regardless of platform."

The effort represents the first time the three online giants have ever joined forces on a single initiative. For consumers with either free or paid e-mail accounts, spam is a massive problem and it also presents myriad challenges for online companies. Often junk message clutter absorbs storage, sometimes preventing wanted e-mails from being received. While all three companies utilize some level of spam protection technology, any user of e-mail services can vouch for the constant inundation of unwanted and sometimes disturbing messages.

On the backdrop of consumer outrage about the growth of spam, the three behemoths which handle billions of e-mail messages daily are at least saying they will work on broad standards.

Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL said they will focus on protecting consumers from receiving spam by stopping companies which "use deceptive techniques in e-mail headers specifying the e-mail sender, by leveraging existing directories of Internet addresses such as the Domain Name System to better identify the location from which e-mail is originating."

The group went further by saying it will try to stop e-mails by combating "concealment techniques" and also block e-mail "from systems determined to be open to unauthorized use (such as open relays, open routers or open proxies)."

The troika added the want to prevent certain companies from creating bulk fraudulent e-mail accounts and to develop a mechanism for feedback between the three companies and their respective customer complaint systems.

The AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo press release comes just before a federal conference is to open up this week. "We are looking forward to the Federal Trade Commission's Spam Forum this week as a valuable opportunity to discuss solutions collaboratively. The event provides a forum for industry, government and technology to come together to address the spam problem and restore the integrity of Internet users' e-mail experience."

And it's precisely that integrity and credibility that is under siege, giving consumer, politicians and now some of the major companies the impetus to begin to tackle the thorny issue of unsolicited blitzing of unwanted messages.

In shades of a Dick Tracy episode, AOL's vice chairman Ted Leonsis said "at AOL, fighting spam is priority number one, because spammers are public enemy number one, both to us and to our members."

The FTC's Spam Forum will be held at the FTC, 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC. The event is open to the public, and there is no fee for attendance. Pre-registration is not required, but only 350 seats will be available at the forum.

--please send to a colleague and ask them to subscribe. We are trying

to build our readership---