A conditional purchase offer (CPO) management system for receiving and
processing CPOs for packages of component goods or services. The package
CPO management system preferably deconstructs an overall package CPO into
component CPOs which are individually offered to sellers. If each
component CPO of a given package CPO is accepted, the package CPO
management system binds the buyer, on behalf of each of the accepting
sellers, to purchase the entire package. An offer price for each component
CPO is preferably calculated by initially determining the total market
price of the package based on the market price of each individual
component good or service within the package. The package CPO management
system then calculates an offer price for each component CPO based on the
total price offered by the buyer for the entire package (as adjusted by a
reserved margin, if appropriate) multiplied by the ratio of the market
price of the respective component CPO to the total market price of the
package. As each individual component CPO is accepted by a seller, the
package CPO management system preferably enters a "pre-bind" agreement
with the seller, whereby the component good or service is reserved for a
predefined time period to pen-nit the package CPO management system to
complete the processing of the remaining active component CPOs. The
package CPO management system preferably provides an optional agency
feature that permits the package CPO management system to accept or reject
a given component CPO on behalf of certain sellers who have delegated such
authority to the package CPO management system.