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

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (64554)	6/25/1999 4:20:00 AM
From: dbblg	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

>>Where's William?? I was in the Santa Ynez Valley overnight. Cool, I was starting to wonder if that was you out on Hayvenhurst yesterday afternoon...

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (64554)	6/25/1999 4:26:00 AM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

William, we missed you. Hey, look below. Black $ Decker to the rescue. >> SEATTLE, June 24 (Reuters) - Internet giant Amazon.com <AMZN.O> said on Thursday it named Joseph Galli as its president and chief operating officer. The e-commerce company said Galli would report to Amazon.com's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, who is relinquishing his title as president. The position of chief operating officer is newly created. Galli comes to Amazon.com from Black & Decker, where he served as the president of Black & Decker's Worldwide Power Tools and Accessories unit, a $3.1 billion business.<< Ps We finally have an Internet that didn't go through the ceiling on its first day of trading. >> NEW YORK, June 22 (Reuters) - Shares of Salon.com <SALN.O> fell nearly 5 percent on their first day of trading Tuesday after the Internet-based magazine's initial public offering through a new online auctioning format failed to light up the market. The stock lost 50 cents to close at $10 as more than 2.6 million shares changed hands on Nasdaq. Salon, a San Francisco-based online magazine covering subjects ranging from politics to technology to literature, had priced 2.5 million shares at $10.50 a share, the bottom of its expected range. Salon was just the second company to opt to go public using lead underwriter WR Hambrecht & Co.'s so-called "Open IPO" or "Dutch-auction" format. WR Hambrecht, set up by Bill Hambrecht, the former chairman of Westcoast investment bank Hambrecht & Quist Inc. <HQ.N>, debuted the new IPO format in April when it took Sonoma, Calif.-based Ravenswood Winery Inc. <RVWD.O> public, also at $10.50 per share. Hambrecht's OpenIPO method enables investors to bid on the stock rather than buying it at a fixed price. The system aims to enable all those who want to be a part of the deal to get a piece of it. Despite the tepid debut, industry watchers and syndicate managers said it was still too early for a verdict on WR Hambrecht's OpenIPO system. "I wouldn't expect a Dutch auction IPO to skyrocket upon debut since the entire point of (the Dutch auction) is to find an equilibrium price. A moonshot would imply that they left money on table and that is what (WR Hambrecht) is trying to avoid," said Catherine Skelly, an analyst at Bluestone Capital Partners. Retail investors have often been locked out of buying IPOs at the offering price because those shares have been allocated to institutional investors. Retail investors, then, have to go to the aftermarket to get a piece of the company. One of the results of doing a Dutch auction is the absence of retail support in the aftermarket because they are not excluded from the deal as they are in other IPOs, Skelly said. "(IPOs) trade up in the aftermarket if there is unfulfilled demand and (investors) are anxious to acquire more, and my guess is that there wasn't overwhelming demand for (this deal)," said one managing director of syndicate. Demand for the shares was temperate prior to the offering, which also contributed to the broken IPO. Salon had only $3 million in revenue last year and has yet to turn a profit. It has a loyal but relatively small audience relative to some other Internet sites. In recent weeks, investors have become more selective and have rewarded deals that are in a niche or growing business, have strong brand recognition or have a list of hefty backers. "There are so many other issues coming out this week," Skelly said. "It may be a battle of business models." As the market has turned more volatile, companies that are pure-play Internet firms have had less success while companies that provide technology for the Internet or offer more developed businesses have performed better.<<