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Non-Tech : Borders Group (BGP) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CrazyTrain who wrote (390)	9/18/1999 11:56:00 AM
From: George Papadopoulos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 411

detnews.com Borders CEO says bookseller will keep plugging away online Associated Press ANN ARBOR -- Borders Group Inc. will continue to battle its online competitors for control of cyberspace book-selling, chief executive officer Bob DiRomualdo said. The online business is "trench warfare at its most brutal," DiRomualdo said Thursday night as he laid out his firm's plan of attack at a joint meeting of the New Enterprise Forum and Ann Arbor Software Council. Nearly 200 people attended the event in Ann Arbor. The book chain's Web site -- borders.com -- goes head-to-head with barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com, the latter of which sells only via the Internet. "A lot of Amazon's business is right out of my hide, I can guarantee you that," DiRomualdo said. "I'd like to get a piece of it back." The profitable Borders U.S. superstores fund the online venture so far. "We're taking a lot of red ink" to build borders.com, he said, while the bricks-and-mortar superstores are expected to show earnings growth for at least the next few years. Borders operates nearly 300 stores, plus 900 Waldenbooks stores that provide "excellent cash flow," DiRomualdo told The Ann Arbor News for a report Friday. In addition to borders.com, the firm has several growth businesses: operations in the United Kingdom and Pacific Rim; two companies -- Day-by-Day Calendar and All Wound Up -- that sell specialty items at mall kiosks; and a small number of Borders outlet stores. But the online business has gained the most attention. Rick Vanzura, the 35-year-old president of Borders Online Inc., resigned in July to take a job with Dell Computer Corp. And the firm still receives criticism for getting into the Internet game late -- some three years after Amazon.com launched in 1995 and about a year after Barnes & Noble went online. Borders is integrating its Web site and stores in several ways, and will eventually offer products and services -like book returns and promotions -- in both venues. The bookstore already has taken several steps toward that goal, DiRomualdo said. Customers can access borders.com in the store for special orders, which are shipped to their homes. Customers also can use the Web site's "self-help" search system, even when they're in a store. And later this fall, Borders will install computers in three stores that give customers access to the chain's full database of books, videos and music, as well as customer and staff reviews. The next step, DiRomualdo said, is to build a high-speed intra-store network, where anyone can shop from anywhere. Ultimately, that could lead to an on-demand digital distribution of books, music and video, he said, and possibly computer games, software, and other products, too. Meanwhile, Borders faces a fiercely competitive market. Borders.com lost $3.4 million during its second quarter, which ended July 25. Sales for the online store were $3.3 million.