In the most naked exercising of user power yet, General Motors Corp and General Electric Co Inc are discussing combining their personal computer procurement to screw vendors down to even better terms than are currently available in today’s climate of bitter price war, the Dallas Morning News reports. The two industrial giants are separately probably the two largest buyers of personal computers in corporate America, and in alliance could drive the prices they get to below cost; the proposed alliance would also set stricter terms on speed of delivery and on quality of service. The Dallas daily says that General Motors and General Electric have met several times in recent months to examine ways to increase their influence over the likes of IBM Corp, Compaq Computer Corp, Dell Computer Corp and Apple Computer Inc, quoting executives involved in the talks and industry analysts and the pact could create a consortium with a requirement as many as 100,000 desktop personal computers annually.
