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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (61430)	6/9/1999 12:50:00 PM
From: Jan Crawley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Bezos was in the right place at the right time to get rich. That is not talent. It is luck. Glenn, I have to point this out, Last year, you made $1M via AOL(and others) long and suffered $1.4M due to Amzn short. You are in a league of you own.

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (61430)	6/9/1999 2:59:00 PM
From: dbblg	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

>>Tom, Amazon made you money due to a manis in the net stocks. It is that simple. Glenn, Do you really believe that? I am net short the sector, and think there is probably more downside ahead for AMZN, but continue to be impressed by AMZN's vision and execution. (Vision: using the web to address the retail wants of upper-middle income baby boomers (a niche, ironically, most clearly delineated by Barnes and Noble offline). Execution: getting to 1+ billion in sales without having the wheels fall off; turning market euphoria into a business plan by raising enough cash to give themselves a chance to survive the coming, likely bloody, e-commerce wars.

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (61430)	6/9/1999 6:31:00 PM
From: Bill Harmond	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

>>Bezos was in the right place at the right time to get rich. That is not talent. It is luck. That is ridiculous, Glenn. No one has his track record building an etailer. If it were luck, he'd be an also-ran. There are plenty of online businesses that were there at "the right time". I think it's time for you to get off the "Besos knows nothing about retailing" theme you've persued so long. It's evident that he knows plenty, and it's clear that many others want to do business under the Amazon umbrella. He built a scalable, billion dollar business in two years. He knows the Achilles' heal of brick-and-mortar retailing, too. You know the profound implications of this, you just won't admit them. You also criticize him for being secretive. When he's playing poker with the smartest minds in retailing and etailing, I don't expect him to be playing his cards face-up.

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (61430)	6/10/1999 12:34:00 AM
From: Tom D	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

Differing views on Bezos... <<What risk? He has no risk.>> <<Bezos was in the right place at the right time to get rich. That is not talent. It is luck.>> I don't know if we can reconcile your views and my views on Bezos. I have read and tend to agree with chapter 8--Personal Rewards and Costs [for founders of new companies] of John Nesheim's book "High Tech Start Up". My thesis is that Bezos brought a huge amount of talent and intellect to AMZN (himself). He invested personal capital, enormous amounts of time and stress and paid an opportunity cost--he could have done something else with his life instead of the AMZN project. I think his AMZN stock is probably worth in the neighborhood of $10 Billion at present (I didn't actually calculate this). You criticize his selling $25 million worth of this stock. This sale does not seem excessive or improper to me. I think if I was CEO of a company I would probably sell 2 or 4% of my stock every year for the sake of portfolio balancing--regardless of the prospects for the company. I don't actually know Bezos or anything about his private life. I don't mean to beat you up on this. I think I must agree to disagree with you on this one. Incidentally, (now this will really make you mad) I still have about 65% of my original number of stake in AMZN--I sold some and they bought a lot of it back. I see AMZN as becoming a miniature internet keiretsu within Kleiners larger internet keiretsu. I hope it will double for me a couple more times in the next few years. Best Regards, Tom

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (61430)	6/10/1999 12:36:00 AM
From: BGR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Message 10057931

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (61430)	6/10/1999 3:11:00 AM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

>>Cut me a break with this love of Bezos. << Glenn, after TomD's term is over, would you consider taking over as the next president of the Jeff Bezos international fan club?? The main two requirements are, you must convert to scientology, and develop a nervous laugh. Oh! being able to be evasive will help too.:-))

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (61430)	6/10/1999 4:59:00 AM
From: Young H. Noh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Glenn, do you really believe that if you were at the right place and time, you could have created Amazon? If you really believe that, you are a lot smarter guy than I. To make any business successful, it takes hard work, vision, good management skills and then of course some luck and good timing. I believe that if Bill Gates, Bezos and me were given the same amount of money right now, five to ten years from now, they would be a lot richer than you or me. Many people have good ideas; what really counts is a commitment and single-mindedness to follow through and executing. I know many people with good ideas who never accomplished much at least financially. All they do is talk and no action.