Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: dbblg who wrote (81904)	10/26/1999 7:27:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Amazon, BOL announce online music sales in Europe By Deborah Cole BERLIN, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> and Bertelsmann AG <BTGGga.F> expanded their electronic commerce war to new fronts on Tuesday as each announced the start of music sales from European web sites. The German media group has tried to challenge Amazon's dominance of Internet bookselling in the United States with its 40 percent stake in Barnesandnoble.com <BNBN.O> and in Europe with BOL. The Bertlesmann campaign is part of a drive to regain ground in the multimedia sector lost to successful, nimble Internet start-ups like Amazon.com. Chief Executive Thomas Middelhoff has acknowledged that the group had got a late start online. BOL said that it would begin selling a selection of 500,000 music compact discs on its German, British, French and Dutch sites from the beginning of November in time to cash in on the Christmas shopping season. It added that it would support the expansion with a 30-million-mark marketing campaign in traditional media. BOL said its other two sites, Spain and Switzerland, would begin selling CDs from early 2000 and that national divisions would offer videos, digital versatile discs, magazines and digital book content to download into Rocket eBook pocket computers next year. The company added that it would start cooperating in Germany with Bertelsmann online auction house Andsold.de on selling college students' used textbooks over the Internet. Amazon.de, the U.S. group's German unit, hit back on Tuesday with the announcement that it had made 200,000 music titles available on its German and British websites from Monday. BOL said it would post 45 million marks in turnover in Europe for the period from its launch in February to the end of 1999, making it the continent's second largest online media retailer behind Amazon. An Amazon.de spokesman said that the company had posted 40 million marks in its two European markets, Germany and Britain, in the first quarter alone. He declined to comment on plans to sell other products beyond books and music in Europe. The fight for dominance of the booming e-commerce market in the United States between Amazon.com and Bertelsmann has entered the courts of late. The companies are locked in a legal battle over electronic commerce in the U.S. over Barnesandnoble.com's alleged infringement of its patented online shopping technology. Amazon.com has filed a complaint with U.S. district court in Seattle. Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com's other parent, bookstore chain Barnes & Noble Inc <BKS.N>, also clashed in 1997 before settling litigation over Amazon's claim to be the "World's Largest Bookstore." REUTERS Rtr 14:25 10-26-99