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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KevinThompson who wrote (18166)	1/6/2000 11:52:00 PM
From: Rande Is	Respond to of 57584

Accel Partners. . . where did we hear that before?. . . FOCUS-Wal-Mart, venture capital firm form Wal-Mart.com Thursday January 6, 10:10 pm Eastern Time (adds comments from Wal-Mart, Accel) NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news) and venture capital firm Accel Partners said on Thursday that the two companies are making the Web site of the world's largest retailer an independent company. ''It's our intention that the company (Wal-Mart.com) will pursue a public offering at the appropriate time,''Wal-Mart spokesman Jay Allen said. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart will hold a majority stake in Wal-Mart.com Inc., which will have its own management and a headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., the companies said. The companies are not disclosing financial terms, except that Accel and Wal-Mart are funding operations of Wal-Mart.com for a year and will make additional investments when needed, James Breyer, managing partner of Accel Partners, said in a telephone interview. Wal-Mart, Accel and the new Wal-Mart.com management all will have equity positions in the Internet retailer, Wal-Mart and Accel said. Formation of the new company is expected to accelerate development of the site, walmart.com. Wal-Mart rang in the new year with a revamped and expanded Web site that sells 600,000 products in a variety of categories and it entered a partnership with America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) to boost an online presence that was perceived as lacking compared to e-commerce firms like Amazon.com Inc.(NasdaqNM:AMZN - news) Wal-Mart.com's marketing ties with America Online and its distribution relationship with Fingerhut, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc. (NYSE:FD - news) ''Wal-Mart.com represents a major initiative to bring offline customers to the Internet,'' Accel Partners Managing Partner James Breyer said. ''Our expectation is to create one of the most fulfilling shopping experiences on the Internet.'' Breyer said Accel's $56 million of investments in 11 Internet companies was worth over $5 billion at the end of 1999. Breyer acknowledged that Wal-Mart had much more leverage in dealing with Accel than the start-up companies that the venture capital firm took public. ''We recognize the importance and value of the Wal-Mart brand,'' Breyer said. ''For us, the attraction of Wal-Mart was very substantial.'' Accel was flooded with phone calls and e-mails about employment at Wal-Mart.com within an hour after the announcement, Breyer said. Allen said Wal-Mart did not disclose 1999 sales at Wal-Mart.com and the financial performance should be consolidated with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s financial results. Wal-Mart's Sam's Club warehouse store division is developing its own e-commerce site independently of Wal-Mart.com that should be introduced later this year. Regarding potential competition between the Wal-Mart Stores and Sam's Club Web sites, Allen said the two divisions appeal to different customers and will compete no differently than the two chains do now. Wal-Mart, which employs over 1 million people worldwide, operates 2,400 stores and 450 Sam's Clubs in the United States and 725 stores internationally.