BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : SEPTEMBER 27, 1999 ISSUE
COVER STORY -- E.BIZ -- THE E.BIZ 25 Glen Meakem GLEN MEAKEM FREEMARKETS INC. Position: Co-founder and CEO Contribution: Revolutionizing business-to-business commerce by creating Web auctions for industries as diverse as coal mining and auto manufacturing. Ambition: To break down barriers to entry and build frictionless markets. Glen Meakem may look as buttoned-down as a Young Republican, but don't let his carefully combed coif and pressed khakis fool you. This guy lives close to the edge. Consider that Meakem, a U.S. Army Reserve engineer, asked to be sent to the Persian Gulf war: Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait ''kind of pissed me off,'' he growls. Risk turns Meakem on. That's why he left a solid job at GE Information Services in 1995 to start his own company, FreeMarkets Inc. in Pittsburgh. It's a Web-based exchange that allows businesses, ranging from utilities to farm equipment makers, to post a list of products they want to buy, while suppliers compete for the business. If Meakem's concept takes root, it could revolutionize business-to-business commerce. ''They're using the Internet to threaten traditional pricing,'' says John J. Sviokla, a Net strategist at Diamond Technology Partners Inc. in Chicago. ''That's a big deal.'' Meakem's selling proposition is alluring. FreeMarkets will raise the quality of the products and services you buy, while lowering the price you pay for them by 15% to 20%. Customers are starting to go for the pitch. Last year, FreeMarkets ran auctions covering $1 billion worth of purchase orders and generating $7.8 million in revenues for itself. ''The reason we save money is that we're creating competition where there wasn't any before,'' says Meakem. ''We mint our buyers money.'' Now there's a risky proposition. By Roger O. Crockett _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS The e.biz 25: Masters of the Web Universe COVER IMAGE: The e.biz 25 Commentary: The Great Equalizer? Not by a Long Shot TABLE: Who's Lagging in the Net Age [empire builders] Jeffrey P. Bezos AMAZON.COM INC. Stephen M. Case AMERICA ONLINE INC. Timothy A. Koogle YAHOO! INC. [the innovators] Louis H. Borders WEBVAN GROUP INC. Jay S. Walker PRICELINE.COM Margaret C. Whitman EBAY INC. Glen Meakem FREE MARKETS ONLINE INC. James H. Clark MYCFO INC. Christos M. Cotsakos E*TRADE GROUP INC. [bankrollers] Masayoshi Son SOFTBANK CORP., JAPAN Robert C. Kagle BENCHMARK CAPITAL Lawton W. Fitt GOLDMAN SACHS & CO. L. John Doerr KLEINER PERKINS CAUFIELD & BYERS   Bernard Arnault LVMH MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON   [the visionaries] Mary G. Meeker MORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITTER John Hagel III MCKINSEY & CO. William Joy SUN MICROSYSTEMS [the architects] Louis V. Gerstner Jr. IBM CORP. Pehong Chen BROADVISION INC. David C. Peterschmidt INKTOMI INC. Kevin J. O'Connor DOUBLECLICK Ellen M. Hancock EXODUS COMMUNICATIONS [the pace setters] David S. Pottruck CHARLES SCHWAB CORP. John T. Chambers CISCO SYSTEMS Michael S. Dell DELL COMPUTER INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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