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

To: Eric Wells who wrote (93452)	2/13/2000 2:59:00 PM
From: Bill Harmond	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

It's smart and strategic. In your talk about lack of profits you don't mention the customer acquisition cost, and the value of the Amazon brand and interface. Amazon is the leading retail destination on the net, with something like 20% of all retailing revenues. What Amazon is trading for those cheap equity stakes is free customer acquisition cost. It's similar to what Wal-Mart did in real estate, though Walmart charged rent or sold off adjacent parcels. Customer acquisition costs have gotten too high for most etailers to manage. Amazon has the highest customer count and the lowest new-customer acquisition cost (hence the best prospects for continuing customer growth) on the Web. Trading equity for Amazon's interface is smart and strategic for all concerned. The industry is consolidating, and because of its customer traffic Amazon is getting good terms.