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

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (139727)	2/22/2002 9:45:27 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164687

5. What's an example of a Net company where you don't see a major competitive advantage over the long term? Amazon.com (AMZN:Nasdaq - news - commentary - research - analysis). Obviously, Amazon is considered an Internet business, but in my view, it's more of a regular retailer. The history of retailing is populated with bankruptcies, companies that had interesting or intriguing business models that worked but never made money. Those are the types of businesses that we actually believe don't have anything proprietary on a long-term basis. After Amazon made money last quarter, it got a lot of fans who said consumers will choose that site over competitors. You don't agree. I don't really think they have anything proprietary, and as people become more proficient in using the Internet, they can price things out quickly. Let's use books as an example. Amazon doesn't produce the books; they come from Doubleday or another publisher. In the future, it makes no difference to me where it comes from because it's all being shipped FedEx or UPS. I just want the book. To me, that implies that Amazon has a very bad business model. Think about the differences between Amazon and Wal-Mart (WMT:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis). When Wal-Mart builds a superstore in a community, there's no need for another one. You have planning, legal battles, all of that. Amazon doesn't really have that barrier. I don't see any clear vision that Amazon has to be a dominant or profitable company in the future. We don't own [its] shares in the funds. thestreet.com