Here's some news from the Wall Street Journal Online Edition this afternoon...
Sotheby's Holdings Inc.
Dow Jones Newswires -- October 4, 1999
DJ Sotheby's Up On Anticipation Of Joint Site With Amazon
By Philana Patterson
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of Sotheby's Holdings Inc. (BID) rose 12% Monday as the company is believed to be closing in on the launch of a Web auction site with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN).
Sotheby's shares have been weak since the spring, partly because of a lack of information on the launch date of the site, according to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Robert Ohmes. Ohmes also attributed the decline to "modest" estimate cuts, due to pressure on margins from competition.
Sotheby's NYSE-listed shares closed up 12%, or 3 at 28 1/16 on volume of 436,600, compared with 125,321 average daily volume. The shares peaked at 47 on April 26. A Sotheby's spokeswoman declined to comment about the stock activity.
In a Monday research note, Ohmes said he believes the sothebys.amazon.com launch could occur in October and most likely within the next two months. Amazon will host the joint site, manage customer service, ship orders and handle credit card processing.
"We ... anticipate increased auction revenues driven by easier accessibility for buyers and sellers at auction, greater frequency of private and public exhibitions and expanded space for (low-end) auctions and product authentication," Ohmes wrote in a research note.
Excitement about the launch is increasing because of the recent success of the Barry Halper baseball collection auction, which ran from Sept. 23 to Sept. 29. Sotheby's eventually plans to sell more Halper memorabilia online. Sales from the original, non-Internet Halper auction, which had been estimated before the event to be around $10 million, actually brought in $21.8 million.
"Investors believe this is going to lead into the Internet stuff," said Janney Montgomery Scott Inc. analyst James Meyer. Although the company didn't promote it as such, many observers are looking at the recent Halper auction as a preview of the online Halper auction, he said.
So far, Sotheby's has been tight-lipped about most of its Internet plans. The company initially reserved 5,000 items from the Halper sale for the online auction, Dain Rauscher Wessels analyst George Sutton wrote in a research note. Prices will range from $300 to $500. The sothebys.amazon.com auction launch will follow the online Halper auction. -By Philana Patterson; 201-938-5360 **
** Reference for WSJ Online subscribers:
interactive.wsj.com
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