Headlines:
Check Courier AirNet Puts Itself on Block
The ailing Columbus, Ohio, check courier AirNet Systems Inc. is up for sale.
On Wednesday, AirNet announced that its board has authorized the Chicago investment banking firm Brown Gibbons Lang & Co. to seek offers. AirNet did not announce any potential buyers but said it hopes to hear from bidders within three months.
In January it hired Brown Gibbons Lang to explore options. At the time AirNet said those options included a partial or total sale.
The decline of its main business - delivering paper checks to banks - in tandem with the overall drop in U.S. check volume has led to steep losses. AirNet posted a $2.8 million profit for 2003 but lost $34 million last year. And its business will probably continue to slide as banks begin converting checks to images.
AirNet has experimented with delivering other things, such as perishable goods and organs for transplant, but those experiments have yet to yield significant rewards. Bert Ely, an independent bank consultant in Alexandria, Va., said, "its primary market is shrinking so fast, they've been trying to make up for it by hauling other stuff."
The best buyer for AirNet would be a large courier such as FedEx Corp. of Memphis or United Parcel Service Inc. of Atlanta, Mr. Ely said. Such a company "might be able to take the check volume and put it in their own planes" to save on expenses.
Though there is no indication that couriers are interested in AirNet, they are "the most logical" potential buyers, he said. "Whoever takes it over has to be able to put some additional volume" in AirNet planes. "Someone needs to figure out how to put some stuff into those planes."
Digital Insight Using PageShare Software
The Calabasas, Calif., banking technology vendor Digital Insight Corp. has incorporated cobrowsing software from PageShare Technologies Inc. of Chapel Hill, N.C., into its call center application.
Digital Insight said Thursday that the cobrowsing software help call center staff members answer questions by letting them see what's on a customer computer screen. The staff member can also click on links and fill out forms remotely on the customer's behalf.
"Users that sign up for online banking and get stuck or frustrated usually don't come back," Jeff Stiefler, Digital Insight's chairman, president and chief executive, said in a press release. "Cobrowse support essentially bridges the online and traditional banking channels to improve the customer experience."
