SHEFFI LAUNCHES LOGISTICS.COM
Dr. Jossi Sheffi, director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced Tuesday that he had begun a new
e-commerce company called Logistics.com, after buying back the
shipper and carrier products portion of Sabre Logistics Group.
Sheffi, who said he was taking "a partial leave of absence" from
MIT, will be chief executive officer of Logistics.com, which will have its headquarters in
Burlington, Mass., and an office in Oklahoma City.
In 1988, Sheffi started a logistics venture called PTCG, which Sabre, Inc.,
purchased three years ago as the hub of Sabre Logistics Group.
Internet Capital Group, an Internet holding company involved in
business-to-business e-commerce, put up $30 million for Sheffi to re-acquire the shipper
and carrier products sector of Sabre, and to establish a new on-line service offering a
range of logistics services.
Sheffi described his venture as one of about 15 companies partially owned by
Internet Capital Group that form a "keiretsu" trading bloc, communally nourished
by the digital transportation market. Trucking companies are the only carriers available
to shippers through Logistics.com, which will not handle ocean transportation.
Sabre, Inc., the parent company of Sabre Logistics Group, said that it will
now focus on the travel industry, according to spokesman Jeff Xouris. Sheffi has severed
all ties to Sabre.