Futures trading
13 September 2012
Electronic marketplaces bring buyers and suppliers together and promise big benefits. But with funding in short supply, the predicted shakeout has started and the future for many such operations is uncertain. Mark Whitehead assesses the likely winners
It was one of hundreds of organisations offering an exciting new way for buyers and sellers to save huge sums of money. MRO.com was riding on the wave of the e-commerce boom, offering to set up electronic trading exchanges on the Internet for its customers in the engineering industry.
But last summer, company bosses had a rethink. They decided to drop their...