American Express
Date:
2/28/01
To:
Dr. David Chappell
From:
angel99ou@aol.com
Re:
American Express
:
American
Express
Visa
Table of
Contents:
American
Express Ratings: ***** = great * = poor
Visa
Ratings: ***** = great * = poor
Introduction:
I chose American Express as the company that I wanted to follow. I
have also included articles from other magazines
and newspapers due to the fact that I could not find many articles about
American Express in the Wall Street Journal.
I have included 2 articles about Visa, one of American Expresses competitors.
About
American Express:
American
Express is the worlds largest travel agency and is a global travel, financial
and network services provider.
It
was founded in 1850 and serves individuals with credit and charge cards,
travelers checks, and other stored value
products.
American Express offers accounting and tax preparation services to small
business, and financial services to
employees.
American
Express's philanthropy's include: funding for employee volunteer services,
support to local United Ways,
grants
to American Red Cross, and funding that protects important natural and
man-made cultural or historic sites.
Value
Added:
-color
-images
-linked images
-table of contents
| Article 1: "AMEX Extends
Blue Card to College Students", Card Fax, February 22, 2001
American
Express will convert cardholders in it's American
Express for Students program to a chip based credit
card
product called Blue. This is being done for the Internet savvy college
students. "Those benefits include an
online
wallet, a smart card reader, and a web site where cardholders can pay their
bills online and check concert
listings"
(AMEX Extends Blue Card to College Students, Card Fax, February 22, 2001).
The conversion will become
effective
March 9 with the launch of a Web site for student cardholder and the Blue
card for students will have the same
interest
rate as the previous credit card. American Express will not say how many
cardholders are in its student
program. |
| Article 2: "American
Express Unit Purchase", Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2001
American
Express Co. said that it's American Express Travel Related Services Co.
unit has agreed to acquire
the
Houston equipment finance company for about $107.4 million. American Express
unit will pay $5.68 for each
of
Sierra Cities 18.9 million shores.
The purchase of Sierra Cities will hopefully expand American Express's
existing
equipment
financing business. Sierra Cities had more than $1.5 billion of receivables
and their shares jumped 36% to
$5.52
each at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. |
Article 3: McCartney,
Scott, "Continental Air Loses Some Accounts After Data-Disclosure Demand",
Wall
Street
Journal, February 6, 2001
 American
Express has dropped Continental
as a preferred provider because the airline "insisted that sensitive
purchasing
data be given to a third party for analysis in return for volume-based
discounts on travel" (McCartney,
Scott,
"Continental Air Loses Some Accounts After Data-Disclosure Demand", Wall
Street Journal, February 6, 2001).
American
Express believes that the airline shouldn't be able to see, and their agreements
with other airlines forbid
them
disclosing what they spend on flight by flight and day by day. |
Article 4: Gandel,
Stephen, "Wall Street's New Rallying Cry: Cut Costs", Crians New York
Business, February
5, 2001
American
Express was faced with a slumping profit growth, therefore causing them
to cut back on salary increases
in
the next year. The firm was also reviewing all of their departments and
operations, which could result in many
layoffs.
"For the bulk of the 13,000 employees in its financial planning subsidiary,
which is based in Minneapolis, raises will average 3%
in 2001. In the past few years, raises at the American Express division
have run as high as 10%, and averaged 5%"(Gandel, Stephen, "Wall Street's
New Rallying Cry: Cut Costs", Crians New York Business, February
5, 2001). The firms that are most heavily getting hurt are the ones that
focus on retail brokerage customers. |
| Article 5: "AMEX, Oracle
Align Software Platforms", American Banker, February 2, 2001
"American
Express has announced an agreement with Oracle
Corp. of Redwood Shores California, the largest
provider
of software for e-business, to integrate the American Express corporate
purchasing card platform into the
Oracle
e-business suite" ("AMEX, Oracle Align Software Platforms", American Banker,
February 2, 2001). American
Express
will benefit greatly by doing this such as automating payment, reconciliation,
and data integration. This will
thereby
provide an end-to-end electronic purchasing solution. This will also ease
order placement, fulfillment, re-
conciliation,
data management and program maintenance. |
Article 6 : "American
Express Closes Deal; Issues New Cobranded Card", Card Fax, January
29, 2001
American Express closed its purchase today of ShopRites
credit card portfolio by issuing a cobranded platinum
credit card that replaces ShopRites Mastercard. The platinum credit card
will not charge an annual fee and the
cardholders wont have to pay off their balances at the end of the month.
The card enables members to earn a 1%
reward on ShopRites purchases and 0.5% reward on all other purchases. |
| Article 7: "Visa
Announces Marketing Alliance with IMAX", Bank Marketing International,
January 18, 2001
"Visa has formed a 2-year strategic marketing partnership with entertainment
technology company IMAX to
combined marketing programmers on a worldwide basis" ("Visa Announces Marketing
Alliance with IMAX", Bank
Marketing International, January 18, 2001). This deal will include merchandise
and concessions at a point-of sale
and special value added offers for cardholders on IMAX tickets. IMAX says
that it will present VIsa as the priority
and preferred e-commerce payment option on its theater Internet sites.
IMAX will also present the exclusive display
of Visas point-of-purchase signage and indoor banner and advertising. |
| Article
8: "American Express Bids for US Banks Cards Portfolio", Cards International,
January 15, 2001
American Express is acquiring the $226 million credit cards portfolio of
Bank of Hawaii, making this American
Express's first agreement to issue its card through a U.S. bank. " American
Express has typically been unable to bid
a vast majority of U.S. bank credit cards portfolios due to Visa and Mastercard
association rules that prohibit their
member banks from issuing cards from competing networks, such as American
Express and Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter" (American Express Bids for US Banks Cards Portfolio", Cards International,
January 15, 2001). This is the
first agreement American Express has reached with a bank to aquire a card
portfolio and the portfolio will run on the
American Express network. The deal is suppose to close in the second quarter
of 2001. |
| Article 9: "American
Express Picks Java as its Smart Card Flavor", Card Fax, January
10, 2001
American Express Company is moving its smart cards to Sun Microsystems
Inc's Java card technology. American
Express says that the Java
card offers more options in terms of programmers and application development
tools,
and chip suppliers. It also offers applications on a variety of platforms
such as mobile phones and handheld 
computers and personal computers. American Expresses move signals that
they no longer wish to take an active role
in the actual governance of the consortium council. |
| Article 10: " American
Express to Launch Online Hub for Plan Managers, Financial NetNews,
January 8, 2001
American Express Retirement Services will offer 401(k) plan sponsors online
access to documents such as service
agreements, investment performance summaries, account reviews and executive
summaries. " The
pass word protected site will also offer new users news and will serve
as a venue through which plan managers can
work on account management, administrative task and benfefit related decision
making" ( American Express to
Launch Online Hun for Plan Managers, Financial NetNews, January
8, 2001). American Express will use the hub to
send email alert updates and time sensitive information applicable to the
client such as regulatory changes, executive
summaries about their plan, a change in portfolio managers or information
that demands client input. |
| Article11: "Animation,
Sound Cue Cardless Visa Transaction, Brandweek, January 1, 2001
Visa is introducing a new, animated
logo with sound that is suppose to extend its brand in e-commerce. The
sound
and animation last for about two seconds as a transaction is made and signal
that a Visa product is being used over a
PDA, mobile phone, a PC, or other devices where a physical payment card
isn't present.This is designed to cue
consumer confidence in the virtual world and the animation will roll out
over the next several years. |
| Article 12: "Woods
Renews Alliance with American Express, Advertising age, December
18, 2000
 American
Express renewed its relationship with Tiger
Woods until 2007, their relationship dates back to 1997. his first
year in professional golf. Tiger Woods is one of the most top endorsements
stars in sports and has appeared in ads
for the American Express card and American Express financial products.
Tiger Woods ran into trouble with Screen
Actors Guildfor appearing in spots for Buick automobiles during a recent
commercial actors strike. He was fined and
then apologized to the union. |
| Article 13: "American
Express, 7-Eleven Launch Prepaid Gift Card", Card Fax, December
12, 2000
American Express Company and 7-Eleven
stores Inc. announced the launch of a prepaid gift card that can be used
at most U.S. retail locations that accept American Express. The cards can
be purchases between $25 and $1,000
for a fee of 4% of the amount loaded. The initiative is a test to see how
well sales do during the holidays and whether
the economics merit continuing the product. American Express also issues
gift cards that are proprietary to specific
stores such as Barnes & Noble, Channel, and Eddie Bauer. American Express
also issues an Internet shopping
card through 7-Eleven that can be used only on merchant Web sites or at
7-Eleven stores.
|
| Article 14: "Visa
Sues American Express Over "Grinch", Direct, December 2000
Visa International Corp. has files a
suit against American Express Co. saying that American Express is promoting
itself as a sponsor of the holiday movie " How the Grinch Stole Christmas".
"Visa said American Express created
an unjustified and deceptive ambush marketing campaign aimed at misleading
consumers. The effort includes direct
mailings to American Express cardholders that prominently feature the Grinch
character" (Visa Sues American
Express Over "Grinch", Direct, December 2000). Foster City, California
based Visa claims that it has an exclusive
licensing agreement to promote the movie and is seeking unspecified damages
and a court order that would require
American Express to stop its marketing campaign. |
Article 15: "New American
Express Corporate Card Tailored to Meeting Planners, American Banker,
November 16,
2000
American Express has introduced
a new kind of commercial card specifically for corporate meeting planners.
American Express Corporate Meeting Card is being issued to the person or
people at a company responsible for
orchestrating meetings and conferences. They are setting higher limits
on the meeting card and allowing companies
to narrowly authorize the card for certain purchases. The meeting card
could then carry a limit as high as $2 million.
"In addition to the high credit limit, the card has a large logo that signifies
the cardholders status as the mail person
authorized to spend money on a company's behalf for meeting expenses" (New
American Express Corporate Card
Tailored to Meeting Planners, American Banker, November 16, 2000). |