Not too good, 3 sets of lawsuits going and a national class actions set to be ruled on this Friday june 19,2009. Fraud, misrepresentation, interverence with economic advantage is among the 34 causes of action LA Superior court LA bc294647.

down to under 4000 stores (6000 is UPS math)

you must not have googled much on this subject because it is all over with a simple google.

http://www.bluemaumau.org/the_ups_store_tales_gore

Thanks, I did miss this. Still don't know anything about the situation but will be interested to learn more and do a follow-up post. Ken Klee

The problem with the purchase of Kinko's is typical of many of these deals. The purchaser buys on perceived value, does not examine the details closely enough and then does not realize the value of what the people in the purchased company can bring to the organization.

Kinko's was far from perfect, but from the start we should have been looked at (and spun) as a lost leader for FDX. A bricks and mortar option that allowed FDX customers to toss their packages at. The 1bil in NEW revenue we bring was never put on our balance sheets. The compensation we got for processing a complex shipping job that took a co-worker half an hour to complete was sometimes no more than a dollar or two. Stock analysts succeeded in making Fred Smith panic about the purchase without truly understanding the long synergy between the two companies.

A perfect example: Did you know every FedEx Office location has the ability to take a document, scan it, and securely electronically transmit it internally to any other FedEx Office? Would you care to guess how many FedEx customers still pay to overnight documents in LetterPaks? Can you imagine if "Absolutely, Positively Overnight" had a new product option "Absolutely, Positively, Now?". No customs charges, free delivery, etc... Still this simple idea never happens.

I miss working for FDX/Kinkos, I do hope they find a way to understand each other and not be swayed so much by the street and stock price.

Thanks much for the insights. Your comments about Wall Street pressures being at odds with getting long-term value out of a deal are especially interesting. kk