Logistics.com buys Sabre unit, launches trade exchange

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 3/1/2000

In order to offer a decision-support mechanism for its online transportation exchange, Logistics.com Inc. of Burlington, Mass., has acquired Dallas-based Sabre Inc.'s logistics business software unit. That unit is best known for its transportation management software. Terms of the deal were not released.

Logistics.com says it plans to integrate Sabre's shipper and carrier decision-making software into its Internet portal, Digital Transportation Marketplace, which matches shippers' freight with available carriers. Sabre's software packages include such applications as OptiBid, which handles contract bidding for shippers, and SureShipping, a transportation management system that includes a carrier-selection module.

By integrating those two applications into its trading exchange, Logistics.com intends to provide real-time buying of transportation at its Web site and thus differentiate itself from other Web exchanges. Shippers and carriers will be able to use the exchange to interact with each other, bid for transportation services, and track and trace shipments in real time.

Serving as chief executive officer of Logistics.com is Dr. Yossi Sheffi, who will take a partial leave of absence from his position as director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Sheffi was the original founder of PTCG, which Sabre bought in 1996 to form the core of its Logistics Group.

In addition to its Burlington headquarters, Logistics.com also maintains offices in Oklahoma City. All former Sabre employees who worked with Sabre's shipper and carrier products will continue as employees of Logistics.com.