Why would they be going after AMZN if it wasn't a great business to be in?
Alex, I can think of a few good reasons:
Protect market share - regardless of the potential profitability of selling online, a loss of market share would be a bad thing for the stocks of BKS and BGP;
Experimentation - the Internet is a new channel that everyone else is trying out, so I guess we should too;
Valuation - maybe it'll make money, maybe not, but if we can just get the market to notice us and give us one tenth of AMZN's sales multiple, our stock goes up by 50%;
Economic Potential - yes, it could be a profitable business one day.
Now, my question is (and I know you are on the sidelines watching, so this is rhetorical) why buy a stock in a business of uncertain economics when there are much deeper pockets, at much more reasonable valuations, that could easily muscle AMZN out if it is, in fact, a lucrative business to be in? Being early doesn't always make you a long-term winner. Ask Commodore, Atari, Wordstar, Lotus, Apple, Novell ......
Regards,
Bob |
