Monday, Nov. 03, 2008
DHL makes bad buy in Airborne Express
When DHL entered the U.S. express package delivery business by buying Airborne Express in 2003, it promised to quickly become a rival presence to the UPS-FedEx duopoly. In many other parts of the world, DHL is the market leader, but in the U.S., it never was able to grab significant share from its competitors. After five years of trying, in November DHL folded its domestic U.S. business, writing down $3.9 billion to cover severance and restructuring costs, and pushing its parent company, Deutsche Post, to a $1 billion loss for the year. All told, the company said, it had lost $10 billion on the venture.