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To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (37225)	5/23/2001 7:25:48 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Dot-Com Crash Doesn't Dent Online Spending By Rick Perera - IDG Wednesday May 23, 4:35 pm Eastern Time <<Business conducted over the Internet is booming, despite the gloom that descended on the sector with the crash in dot-com stock values, according to research released separately Wednesday by IDC and America Online. Worldwide, users rang up $354 billion in e-commerce transactions last year, a number expected to skyrocket to more than $5 trillion by 2005, said IDC analyst David Emberley. "The big thing to remember about this number is that it's not driven entirely by b-to-c [business-to-consumer]; the majority of this is actually b-to-b [business-to-business]," he said. Some 80 percent of online transactions conducted in 2000 were between businesses, he added, a proportion that IDC estimates will rise to about 86 percent in 2005. "It's tried-and-true, brick-and-mortar companies going out there and creating marketplaces; it's the big dollars from the large corporations that are driving this," Emberley said. But even retail spending is continuing apace, at least among AOL users. Subscribers spent a record $6.7 billion shopping online in the first quarter of 2001, up more than 70 percent during the same period last year, the company said in a statement. Nearly three quarters of AOL's 17 million U.S. users now shop online. In the coming years, a rapid rise in the number of users outside the U.S. will fuel continued growth in online sales, Emberley said. By 2005, nearly a billion people will be using the Internet, with much of the growth coming in populous countries that have so far had relatively few Net surfers, according to IDC projections. "There are a lot of areas out there that have always been traditionally slow to get on board — India, China, other parts of the Asia-Pacific region," Emberley said. "A lot of that has to do with infrastructure problems, technical problems, but it is also due to those societies and their fear of credit-card type transactions. But as that fear breaks down, you've got powerhouses that can drive growth." While the U.S. leads the globe in Internet use, accounting for 34 percent of surfers worldwide in 2000, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region will rapidly pull ahead, leaving the U.S. in third place, he said. The U.S. share of the world's e-commerce, 46 percent in 2000, will drop to 36 percent in 2005, more in line with its position in the offline economy. In a similar report released last month, Forrester Research estimated world e-commerce trade at $657 billion, projecting a growth to $6.8 trillion in 2005. Emberley said his company's more conservative figure is due to a stricter definition of e-commerce. E-commerce, according to Emberley, is defined as "the process by which an order is placed or accepted via the Internet ... therefore representing a commitment for a transfer of funds in exchange for goods or services." The term does not include orders placed by fax or e-mail, even if the e-mail system uses the Internet, he said — though e-mail transactions sealed with a digital signature would count as e-commerce.>> IDC is a subsidiary of International Data Group, the parent company of IDG News Service.

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (37225)	5/23/2001 10:03:53 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Amazon's brouhaha with a Lehman analyst May 22, 2001 12:00 AM ET by Kent German _____________________________________________________ From the June 2001 issue of UPSIDE magazine It's not easy being Amazon.com (AMZN) _____________________________________________________ <<Sure, you're an e-commerce pioneer, and you have one of the most recognizable brands in the b-to-c space. But, over the last year, you've seen your stock tumble from a 52-week high of $58.13 to a low of $8.10, you've gotten into a visible and nasty fight with Amazon Queen Mary Meeker, and you're still trying to reach that pesky but important thing called profitability. Then a relatively obscure Lehman Brothers analyst issues a series of reports slamming your company and advising investors to avoid you like the plague. Seattle, we've got a problem. Such is the latest chapter in the tale of the mighty Amazon. The e-tailer is more than a little irked at former Lehman convertible-bond analyst Ravi Suria, who took the aggressive step of announcing Amazon was going down the tubes and that it could completely run out of cash in the coming quarters. In denial Jeff Bezos and his bunch responded swiftly and harshly to Suria's writings, which began last June and continued through February of this year. Suria resigned from Lehman in March to join a hedge fund. Bezos was quoted as saying the reports were "pure, unadulterated hogwash." Amazon spokesman Bill Curry echoed his boss' sentiment, telling Upside, "We think it contains inaccuracies and assumptions that have no basis in fact." Curry would not comment on reports that Amazon board member John Doerr got into the act by calling Suria's bosses to complain or that Amazon officials had sent a three-page note to Lehman criticizing the report. Based on Amazon's reaction, one might think that Suria had accused Bezos of conceiving an alien love child. But, in reality, his writings do not seem far from the truth and should have come as no surprise. In his original report, Suria characterizes Amazon's credit as "extremely weak and deteriorating," adding that "the company's inability to make hard cash per unit sold is clearly manifested in the weak balance sheet, poor working-capital management, and massive negative cash flow." One needs to look no further than Amazon's earnings for the fourth quarter of 2000 to see that it reported a pro forma operating loss of $60 million, with a basic loss of $1.53 per share. While such an amount is considerably less than the $175 million loss reported for the fourth quarter of 1999, Suria points out that the continued operational weakness is coupled with a mounting pile of debt. No fear For Amazon's part, Curry insists that his company is "continuing to operate our business and make steps toward profitability." That may be, but Amazon's almost poke-in-the-eye, temper-tantrum reaction may be a sign that the report hit a little too close to home. Suria would not go on record about what he personally thought of Amazon's reaction, saying only that the report was written after careful research. While it's still too early to determine whether Suria is a prophet or the boy who cried wolf, the heated exchange shows that some David-like analysts are not afraid to take on a Goliath.>> Kent German is an assistant editor at UPSIDE magazine

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (37225)	5/24/2001 11:27:54 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 65232

Jobless Claims Highest Since June 1994 Thursday May 24, 10:09 am Eastern Time By Nancy Waitz <<WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of new applications for jobless benefits rose last week, while the number of people remaining on unemployment rolls reached the highest level in more than six years, the government said on Thursday. Initial claims for state jobless benefits jumped by 15,000 in the week ended May 19 to 407,000 from a revised 392,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said. Last week's claims number was revised to a climb in claims, rather than a drop as first reported. The weekly jobless data are attracting increasing attention as economists look to the numbers for clues to the broader employment picture amid a softening U.S. economy. First-time claims, up for the second consecutive week, were at their highest since 425,000 in the April 28 week. The rise in the May 19 week was sharper than expected. U.S. economists in a Reuters survey had projected claims in the latest week would rise to 388,000. In a sign the pace of hiring slowed sharply, the number of continued claims rose to 2,772,000 in the week ended May 12 -- the latest week for which figures were available -- from 2,683,000 in the previous week and the highest since 2,784,000 in the June 11, 1994 week. The closely watched four-week moving average, which irons out week-to-week volatility, fell to 403,000 in the week ended May 19 from 404,250 in the May 12 week. The overall high level of jobless claims could reinforce expectations of weakness in the May employment report, scheduled for release on June 1. In a preliminary Reuters poll, economists predicted an 8,000 drop in new jobs, from a decline of 223,000 in April. ``The recent level of initial claims for unemployment insurance suggests that the unemployment rate will likely continue to rise over the next several months,'' White House economic adviser Glenn Hubbard told Congress' Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday. The U.S. unemployment rate now stands at 4.5 percent, up from a 30-year low of 3.9 percent hit last autumn. It is expected to rise to 4.6 percent in May. In week the ended May 12 -- the week before the latest reported claims -- Labor said two states reported an increase in claims of more than 1,000, with Mississippi reporting 1,280 additional claims centered in the apparel, furniture and trade industries. In the same week, two states and Puerto Rico reported a decrease in claims of 1,000 or more, led by Michigan with 2,437 fewer claims in the automobile industry.>>