Originally Posted by
⌐ AV8OR WANNABE
Is that info correct? I thought Fedex was much bigger in Europe than UPS?
This was in one of the chapters in either Big Brown or Driving change, I can't remember which one. The author basically used it as an example of the benefits of a closely held private company (UPS) vs. the publicly held FDX. In that both companies were investing in Europe. Both were losing money hand over fist. Eventually the share holders (read hedge funds and large banks) basically told FDX to stop the bleeding. So they pulled out of some markets and stopped investing in others. UPS on the other hand kept pouring money in. The author basically said that there was no way a public company could have invested so much for so long. In the end he praised the UPS management for taking the long view vs the quarter to quarter view that seems to be so prevalent in the current financial world. In the end UPS Europe operation continues to grow at a good pace returning handsomely on the investment.
I find it funny then that several months after a read the book and was excited about UPS's status as a privately held company that they took the company public.
Oh well.