These dynamics are playing out in b

These dynamics are playing out in business trade as well IMX Exchange, for example, provides an online marketplace for mortgage brokers to find loans. Instead of having to comb through dozens of daily faxes of lender rate sheets, brokers place requested loans on the exchange, and lenders bid on them. San Jose(Calif. real estate broker Cecelia Babkirk says IMX saves her up to a half-point on loans and another half-point for the home buyers she serves- adding S 60, 000 to he enues ler annual rev.These upstart middlemen may be poised to play a command.ing role in their industries. Infomediaries aimed at trade between businesses alone will grow from S 290 million in revenues last year to about S 20 billin by 2002a quarter of all business trade, predicts Charles H. Finnie, an analyst with investment bank Volpe Brwon Whelan Co. Says Finnie: " Infomediaries have the potential to fundamentally reorder the economy Over the long haul, these infomediaries will be able to pool enormous buying power over the Net to extract even more from vendors. Early results from individual buyers point to potentiall uge savings. General Electric Co., for instance, has reduced prices by 200% on more than I billion in purchases of operating materials by pooling various divisions orders online- something too cumbersome in the physical world o demand volume dis-counts Caveat emptor may be the byword of traditional commerce but E-business has added a new twist: Caveat venditor, let the vendor beware.