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To: Bill Harmond who wrote (66139)	7/2/1999 11:59:00 PM
From: H James Morris	Respond to of 164687

William, Isn't Onsale a Kleiner child??, and so is Amazon.com! >>Menlo Park, California, July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Onsale Inc., which sells computer equipment and other goods online, rose 36 percent on speculation it may be bought by Amazon.com Inc., the largest Internet retailer. Onsale jumped 6 5/8 to 25 1/4 on trading of 7.8 million, 10 times the three-month daily average. The shares rose as high as 26 1/4. Amazon.com shares rose 1 11/16 to 124 1/16. Acquiring Onsale could help boost Amazon.com's fledgling auction business by adding more products such as computers and sporting goods, analysts said. Last week shares of Beyond.com, an online software seller, rose 28 percent in similar speculation, as investors try to guess who Amazon.com will add to its roster next. ''This would give Amazon a real quick start in this business, plus it would give them a business that has an e- commerce operation that is technically superb,'' said Philip Leigh, an analyst with Raymond James Financial, which rates Onsale shares ''hold.'' Amazon.com declined to comment. Officials at Onsale couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Financial news network CNBC said Onsale shares rose on speculation Amazon.com may make a bid of $30 a share, without citing sources. That would value the transaction at about $587 million. Auctions of Excess Onsale auctions sell what it calls excess goods -- new merchandise that it bought at a discount, such as computers and sporting goods. This spring it started Onsale atCost, through which it sell merchandise at cost for a $10 per order fee. As other online merchants, such as Buy.com and Value America Inc., move toward similar strategies, partnering with a large company like Amazon.com makes more sense for Onsale. ''This whole area is going to get a lot more competitive, and in order for them to stay near the head of the pack they are going to need deeper pockets,'' said Leigh. Onsale's shares almost reached 100 late last year as reports of increasing holiday sales pushed Internet shares higher. The shares had fallen back to the 30s by April, when the retailer said increasing costs for marketing would hurt profits and they fell to the low 20s and eventually as low as 15 1/2. ''I think the sharp decline in the share price cut off the capital markets for them,'' Leigh said.<< Who is running this whole show? I think Kleiner, Perkins!!

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (66139)	7/3/1999 10:01:00 AM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164687

William, is your sleeping giant Wal-Mart finally waking up? Have you ever owned a single share of Wal-Mart? >> While today's deal between mega-retailer Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and in-and-out-of-favor Books-A-Million (Nasdaq: BAMM) was received well by the bookseller's shareholders, the bigger picture out of Bentonville, Arkansas, is a bit murky. Books-A-Million shares jumped $6 11/32, or 84.2%, to $13 7/8 after Wal-Mart named Books-A-Million the exclusive provider of books and related products to its Internet customers. With many observers believing Wal-Mart's distribution network already boasts the power and precision to create an e-commerce powerhouse to make Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) gape, the enlistment of other companies -- it contracted Federated Department Stores' (NYSE: FD) Fingerhut direct mail unit for Internet order fulfillment earlier this month -- is a curious step. It may be that Wal-Mart is simply bringing in help as a temporary measure -- but it may also indicate that Sam Walton's retail empire is considering a different direction altogether for its virtual shopping operation. Either way, Books-A-Million still stands to benefit from its association with the extremely well-regarded company. For more perspective on the deal, head back to today's Lunchtime News.