Hey Prissy, your just jealous about MBA's because they get the best jobs on Wall Street!
Btw
Did you know Lauren Cooks Levitan got her MBA from Stanford too?
>New York, Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Lauren Cooks Levitan, an analyst at Robertson Stephens Inc., comments on prospects for Amazon.com Inc., the No. 1 online retailer. Amazon fell 2.26 to 32.80 after Levitan told clients in a research note that Amazon may not be able to make money under its current business model, which offers customers products ranging from books to electronics to patio furniture. Amazon has lost $1.5 billion since it was founded in 1994.
``The Amazon brand has become synonymous with access to everything. Could any amount of planning allow them to run fulfillment facilities (that warehouse and handle orders) for 18 million products?
Levitan said her research suggests the answer is no, and Amazon needs to recognize that.
``Our underlying premise is there are things Amazon can do to capitalize on their very formidable strengths including the largest customer base and biggest brand in online retailing.
``By placing inventory risk with a partner like with the Toys R Us deal, they can streamline the operation.
``Once outside of their core business of books, music and video, they'd be better off editing the assortment to be more efficient, and/or entering into third party agreements such as they have with Drugstore.com. There's a tab on the (Amazon) site to Drugstore's site. Amazon gets revenue, and Drugstore has all the inventory risk.
``We've seen some indications they are entertaining alternative forms. For example their use of Toys R Us as a partner. They hold the inventory for fulfillment of orders, but Toys R Us owns it, so the risk isn't Amazon's.
``The question for an investor is how quickly will they do it. Will there be a deterioration in the profit outlook? The best Internet companies will be those that respond to shifts in the world. Heretofore Amazon has responded well.''
Still, ``just because something is good for consumers doesn't mean its good for investors.''
Oct/04/2000 9:58 ET |
