SHEFFI LAUNCHES LOGISTICS.COM

   Dr. Jossi Sheffi, director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced Tuesday that he had begun a new e-commerce company called Logistics.com, after buying back the
shipper and carrier products portion of Sabre Logistics Group.
   Sheffi, who said he was taking "a partial leave of absence" from MIT, will be chief executive officer of Logistics.com, which will have its headquarters in Burlington, Mass., and an office in Oklahoma City.
   In 1988, Sheffi started a logistics venture called PTCG, which Sabre, Inc., purchased three years ago as the hub of Sabre Logistics Group.
   Internet Capital Group, an Internet holding company involved in business-to-business e-commerce, put up $30 million for Sheffi to re-acquire the shipper and carrier products sector of Sabre, and to establish a new on-line service offering a range of logistics services.
   Sheffi described his venture as one of about 15 companies partially owned by Internet Capital Group that form a "keiretsu" trading bloc, communally nourished by the digital transportation market. Trucking companies are the only carriers available to shippers through Logistics.com, which will not handle ocean transportation.
   Sabre, Inc., the parent company of Sabre Logistics Group, said that it will now focus on the travel industry, according to spokesman Jeff Xouris. Sheffi has severed all ties to Sabre.