LETTERS - Letter to the Editor

Industry Standard, The, Feb 26, 2001

PLUGGED-IN COMPANY

THE PREMISE IN YOUR ARTICLE ABOUT GE ["General Electric's Spin Machine' Jan. 22-29] seems to be that e-business is an "either-or" thing -- either you are new economy or old economy. The point you miss, or neglect to write about, is that for a company with the size and execution history of GE, there is a tremendous opportunity to cut costs and improve sales. It's almost as if you are saying GE has to go so full-fledged into e-business that it becomes one of these money-losing dot-coins or forgets the discipline much of the world's economy has counted on from GE.

When [CEO] Jack Welch talked about Six Sigma five years ago, much of the media and business world didn't believe. Now the initiative is touted throughout the press, and corporations like AIG, Amazon, American Express, J.P. Morgan and Microsoft are trying to implement their own versions.

Tiku Raval

President

Safedrivers

tiku.raval@worldnet.att.net

SEEK PROFESSIONAL TAX HELP

WE ARE STARTING TO SEE THE KIND OF problems written about by Miguel Helft in "Out of Options" [Feb. 12]. We've had several contacts from individuals who exercised their options and either didn't sell them or had nonqualified options that they sold at a huge loss.

On nonqualified options, the income shows up on W-2 forms, and the losses can only be written off subject to the capital loss limitations of $3,000 per year. This is a problem I predicted many months ago when the bottom started to fall out of the dot-coin stock world.

So what is the former paper millionaire who now owes the IRS a fortune to do? First, don't panic. Since 1997, the IRS has not been nearly as draconian as it had been. Second, consult a firm to speak to the IRS on your behalf. Third, put together a summary of your current financial condition, including income, expenses, assets and liabilities.

Fourth, understand that there are solutions other than bankruptcy. The IRS Offer in Compromise program is designed for taxpayers who cannot pay their back taxes and want to settle for something less than the total due. Nationwide, the average offer has been about 14 percent of the total due. There is no correlation between the amount owed and the amount you must offer. An offer will be based upon the value of your assets and your ability to pay.

Finally, be very careful about whom you choose to represent you. There are many unlicensed practitioners and firms that rely on high-pressure sales agents to close deals. Hire only a licensed tax practitioner (EA, CPA or attorney) who regularly negotiates with the IRS on behalf of clients.

Steve Kassel

President and CEO

IRSTaxes.com

skasselea@irstaxes.com

WHAT WOMEN DON'T WANT

WHO KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO iVillage and Women.com ["IVillage.com to Buy Women.com for $47 Million," www.thestandard.com, Feb. 5], and who really cares?

The former has a male CEO, which is not bad per se, but how can a company claiming to be a woman's portal be headed by a man and really remain true to its purpose? Women.com sold out its audience to Hearst to market romance novels and women's publications promoting negative stereotypes of the ideal woman. Both companies may have been misguided from the beginning thinking that "women" as a group were a definable enough market demographic.

I do wish VillageWomen the best of luck, but let's focus on some intelligent women-oriented companies for a change.

Natasha K. Zaslove

Director of Marketing

GirlGeeks.com

natasha@girlgeeks.com

MIND YOUR GOVERNMENT BUSINESS

I FOUND JONATHAN GS KOPPELL'S "YOUR Ad Here" [Feb. 12] thought-provoking. Government Web sites should avoid jumping on the "beleaguered banner bandwagon." We are already paying for those sites as taxpayers, and advertisers, for their own sake, should be very cautious in dealing with government entities in a commercial endeavor.

The troubling part of the government and commercial partnership is that the two are as incompatible as capitalism and communism. Government agencies are there because they have been given appropriations to exist. There are no quality controls or accountability efforts. I survived two contracts to market real estate assets for the U.S. Small Business Administration. The government staff I encountered at the SBA was only busy figuring out how to squelch opportunity.

The private sector is motivated by profits. The notion of using government Web sites for banner advertising is foolish not because government sites are like parks or public spaces that should remain pristine, but because it is counterintuitive to [apply] profit-making ideas with the government.

Furthermore, the ultimate use of government data should be for assistance to citizens. If a commercial vendor can figure out a way to find an opportunity by using the government site's data, then forge ahead.

But don't make the mistake of using those sites' advertising mediums or moneymaking opportunities. Save your dollars and avoid e-government.

Steven A. Ludsin

President

S.A. Ludsin & Co.

usaludsin@aol.com

MATTER OF INTERPRETATION

IN "THE RULES if POLITICS" [JAN. 22-29], Lawrence Lessig asserts that "open platforms keep players honest." Equally correct is his statement that "the danger of closed access" is "where the platform owner has the power to control which innovations are permitted and which are not." Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Lessig implies the majority of the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, not the dissenters, are guilty of the "closed access" offense.