>To anyone: is there an Amazon-only talk group somewhere?
What's there to say about Amzn that hasn't already been said?
Btw
Did you know the Bush and Gore election outcome will be based on who wins the Amzn debate?
>TOKYO, July 19 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> chairman and chief executive Jeff Bezos sees Japan as a very strong market and would eventually like to see a Japanese operation for the fast-growing online retailer.
"The long-term outlook is very positive for e-commerce in Japan," Amazon's founder he told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
He repeated that the online retailer, which just turned five years old, was in a strong cash position, dismissing as "just wrong" a recent report by broker Lehman Brothers that it was facing a cash crisis.
"As of the end of the most recently reported quarter we had $1 billion in cash and we expect to generate cash from operations for the rest of the year combined, not use cash from operations," Bezos said.
On June 23, Lehman analyst Ravi Suria and his associate C. Stan Oh, commenting on Amazon's corporate bonds, said the company has a weak balance sheet, poor working capital management and massive negative operating cash flow.
Bezos said the report was "just wrong."
"It was an odd report. We're in a very strong cash position. We're very happy with our cash position."
A JAPAN AMAZON
Asked if Japan was to be part of Amazon's future, he said the country's expensive land prices and dense population made it a good market for e-commerce.
"I think Japan will be a very strong e-commerce market because land is expensive, and because population densities are high. So when land is expensive, the relative advantage that online shopping has as compared to physical world shopping is very large," he said.
"And number two, when population densities are very high, deliveries are easy and inexpensive," said Bezos, in Tokyo for an international gathering on information technology, which is a main theme for this week's summit in Okinawa of the Group of Eight industrial nations.
PROFITS?
He declined to elaborate on profit forecasts or on when the group would turn a profit -- expected by some analysts at the end of 2001. But he said he expected the group's large number of new businesses to follow the lead of its U.S. books business, which has moved into profitability.
"We've got one semi-mature business -- our U.S. books business. All our other businesses are new. U.S. books is already profitable. As the number of mature business starts to be large relative to the number of new businesses, then the company as a whole will start to become profitable because then the mature business will start to fund the new businesses."
He expected the next business to mature to include music and video.
"Generally speaking they will mature in the order in which they were started. We would expect music and video to be next, and so and so on."
He said Amazon.com hoped to eventually set up businesses in every country where it "makes economic sense."
21:13 07-18-00 |
