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

To: H James Morris who wrote (93047)	2/4/2000 6:54:00 PM
From: Danny	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

<<the only guarantee is we're all born and we'll all die>> Can't argue more on that. The "guarentee" in my Wall Street dictionary means an 80% possbility. Of course nothing is for sure on wall street. I even heard the rumor that Greenspan is thinking of hiking the rate again before the March meeting. Just imagine how many percentage point drop on NASDAQ we will see if that really happens:)

To: H James Morris who wrote (93047)	2/4/2000 7:22:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Regarding Amazon.com's ongoing expansion, Warren Jenson, Amazon.com chief financial officer, said, "Our U.S. Books business was profitable in the fourth quarter, and we expect it will be profitable in 2000. James, They lied but hedged in that thier accounting may be in viloation of the SEC rules. They also stated they are indifferent to this<G>

To: H James Morris who wrote (93047)	2/4/2000 7:56:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

From Thestreet.com: "Just one question: How does Amazon define profit? Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates in New York, one of the country's largest short-selling funds, did the math and came away with a loss for the book business -- not a profit. (Chanos' fund is short Amazon.) He got there by subtracting his estimates of cost of sales and Amazon's fulfillment costs. He then deducted estimated marketing and sales expenses as well as general and administrative expenses. Herb's Latest: Join the discussion on TSC Message Boards . When Chanos ran his calculation (along with his estimates) by analysts who are friendly to Amazon, each gave him slightly different numbers on the cost of sales, fulfillment costs and marketing and sales costs -- differences that didn't really affect his bottom line: After general and administrative costs, Amazon still didn't make any money. "But," the analysts argue (and I'm extrapolating here, based on what Chanos told me), "Amazon is telling us their definition of profit is before general and administrative costs." (The analysts are calling it "contributed profit." Contributed profit? That's a new one!) General and administrative costs are considered normal expenses for every business, which is why Chanos included them. "I guess we have a philosophical difference," Chanos says. He adds: "I think the company is being misleading, at best, saying books are profitable, because using my numbers they're only profitable on a gross-profit basis." (By gross profit Chanos means profitable before sales and marketing as well as general and administrative costs.) "