Look Out, Amazon.com
IPO Watch
May 24, 1999
by Sylvia Carr
Watch out: Eight steaming hot tech firms are coming down the IPO chute during the week of May 24. Which one will have the smoothest entry? Come peer into our crystal ball.
Barnesannoble.com
The No. 1 IPO to watch is Barnesandnoble.com, the online bookseller and direct competitor to Web landgrabber Amazon.com. Barnesannoble.com will offer 25 million shares at $11 to $13 each, and trade under the symbol "BNBN."
Barnesannoble.com first filed for an IPO in September 1998, but withdrew due to market sluggishness. Just one month later, German media company Bertelsmann infused the retailer with $200 million of cash, taking a 50 percent share in the company. The other half of the site is owned by the well-known book store chain Barnes & Noble. After the IPO each will own about 40 percent of Barnesannoble.com.
The site suffers from the same financial difficulties as its foe, with 1998 losses hitting $83.1 million on revenues of $61.8 million. Its difficulties didn't improve much in the first quarter of 1999, when it lost $20 million on revenues of $32 million.
But how will Barnesandnoble.com fare against Amazon.com? Amazon has the advantage with Net early adopters, but Barnesandnoble.com hopes to grab customers who are just getting online with its strong offline brand name. B&N also benefits from promotional deals with leading Web sites AOL, Microsoft and Lycos, and thinks Bertelsmann will help it beat out Amazon for international customers, especially in Europe.
But Amazon is not Barnesandnoble.com's only competitor. Parent company Bertelsmann owns potential rivals in print-book publisher Random House, U.S music compnay BMG Entertainment and online music retailer Getmusic.com. Bertelsmann has agreed not to sell English language books online, but the German company could compete with Barnesandnoble.com in the sale of videos, software or music.
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