Abstract: An on-line marketplace for entities providing collection services and those requesting collection services is presented. The web-site of the present invention may assist Clients in identifying the most effective set of Providers in connection with the characteristics of their receivables. The present invention may also provide a method for rating the effectiveness of the collection companies as well as a method for rating the quality of the receivables where Clients may evaluate and select one or more appropriate Providers. A database of collected receivables, data mining techniques, or neural networks may be used to examine a set of receivables and determine a set of collection services for an optimal return. A client may select one or more providers based on a self-selection process, an optimization process, an auction process or other selection method.

Abstract: This invention provides processes for preparing lactone intermediates useful for the preparation of pharmaceutical compounds such as tetrahydrolipstatin and cryptophycin compounds.