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

To: hdl who wrote (149243)	10/25/2002 8:31:49 AM
From: re3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164687

and you think that represents VALUE ?

To: hdl who wrote (149243)	10/25/2002 8:33:41 AM
From: re3	Respond to of 164687

yellow doggie up 2.80 now, whee ! (every time i post stuff like that, the little voice inside says, sell some...)

To: hdl who wrote (149243)	10/25/2002 6:00:34 PM
From: H James Morris	Respond to of 164687

For more than six months, Seattle-based Amazon.com has tested TV commercials in two markets touting the convenience of online shopping and the retailer's free-shipping campaign for orders of more than $25. As Amazon heads into its eighth holiday quarter, the most critical for the e-commerce bellwether, its test will be whether this $25 threshold can compel customers to buy enough books and cameras to override any adverse impact on the bottom line. "It's very expensive so we're being very deliberate about our decision-making process," Chief Executive Jeff Bezos told analysts yesterday. The company should decide early next year whether to continue the promotion, he said. So far, it seems to have worked well enough to help boost the online retail giant's financial performance. Yesterday, the company beat analysts' expectations, narrowing its third-quarter net loss to $35.1 million, or 9 cents per share, vs. $169.9 million, or 46 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 33 percent compared with the year-ago quarter to $851.3 million. When adjusted to account for the effects of Sept. 11, which occurred in the same quarter last year, the company said revenue increased roughly 25 percent. Its third-quarter revenue last year dropped disproportionately as a result of the slowdown in business activity post-Sept. 11. Analysts say the quarter's growth was driven by the company's international segment. Revenue there rose 90 percent to $264 million, while it achieved a pro forma operating profit, one that excludes certain charges, for the first time. Meantime, the company continued to cut expenses by refining the way it picks, packs and ships items. The company's operating loss, a number analysts follow closely as a measurement of efficiency, was $9.6 million, compared with an operating loss of $70.3 million a year ago. That loss included a one-time $36.8 million charge to account for the change in leasing value of excess office space in Georgia, Amazon.com Chief Accounting Officer Mike Peek said. "It's generally strong across-the-board," Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown analyst Jeetil Patel said of Amazon's quarterly results. "It seems like a continuation of the positive trends we've seen for several quarters now." For more than a year, Amazon has focused on expanding its business through a mixture of lowering prices on certain items and offering free shipping to customers who purchase a set amount of goods, transforming it into a sort of "Wal-Mart of the Internet." Part of its strategy was to test the shipping-fee barrier to e-commerce. It first offered free shipping on orders of $99 or more during the holiday season and extended that offer to customers year-round in January. In mid-June, Amazon lowered the threshold to orders of $49 or more, and lowered it to $25 in August. Since Amazon has changed its shipping threshold each time mid-quarter, analysts say it's been hard to discern its true impact on long-term profitability. Bear Stearns analyst Jeff Fieler said that while the third-quarter results had many moving parts, the overall prognosis looked good. "It's definitely a growth story again," he said. Amazon's shares yesterday rose 11 cents to close at $19.86, but dropped $1.01 in extended trading. The company announced its financial results after the markets closed. seattletimes.nwsource.com