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To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (4765)	5/27/1998 7:51:00 PM
From: zebraspot	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

DJ Newswires: Barnes & Noble Uses Web To Move Beyond Books To Information Dow Jones Newswires -- May 27, 1998 By PHILANA PATTERSON Dow Jones Newswires NEW YORK -- Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) Vice Chairman Stephen Riggio said he believes barnesandnoble.com will become an information marketplace. Wednesday, the bookseller unveiled an enhanced version of its Internet site that downloads faster, is easier to navigate and speeds up ordering. In addition, the site now has an area called Intel's softwareforpcs.com, where Barnes & Noble sells software recommended for the Pentium II processor by Intel Corp. (INTC), the chip's maker. "We remain intensely focused on the book business," Riggio told Dow Jones. "We intend to have the best bookselling site, but we believe it will become an information superstore." Adding software to the site was a natural progression, he said. The company already sells magazine subscriptions on-line and some software in its stores. Selling software on-line opens opportunities to cross-merchandise by linking related books and software titles. Barnes & Noble expects revenue from barnesandnoble.com to reach $100 million in calendar 1998. The site's ad budget for the same period is $40 million. The company has continually made small improvements to barnesandnoble.com since its March 1997 launch, but these are the biggest changes yet, Riggio said. The ideas for many of the changes came from on-line customer feedback, from observing how customers use the site and from focus groups. The company has had more than 500,000 on-line customers from 158 countries. Like other on-line retailing ventures, the site yet to make a profit. For the first fiscal quarter ended in May, it had a loss of $8 million, or 12 cents a share. The entire company, which typically loses money in the first quarter, narrowed that loss this year to $3.3 million, or 5 cents a share, from $3.9 million, or 6 cents, a year earlier. Some analysts believe the overall strong performance could help Barnes & Noble ramp up its Internet business and make it profitable more quickly. Although rivals such as on-line bookseller Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) are formidable competitors, Riggio sees room for Barnes & Noble to continue gathering market share, which is now at 14% to 15%. And, he added, he doesn't think on-line book selling will cannibalize the bricks-and-mortar presence. "We think the on-line bookstore is a tremendous way to extend the franchise and expand the market." Riggio said. "We're now reaching customers globally. We don't have stores everywhere. This is a way to reach more people." It may also be a way to sell more books per customer. Now customers will be notified of new books and special promotions via e-mail. "It makes people more frequent book buyers," Riggio said. -Philana Patterson; 201-938-5360 Briefing Book for: AMZN \| BKS Return to top of page \| Format for printing Copyright c 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (4765)	5/27/1998 9:33:00 PM
From: Jan Crawley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Glenn, I got the following article from our friend Blankmind: interesting view on hot sector stocks without profits: [OTC Growth Stock Watch (617) 444-6100] During the last month, there has been extreme speculation regarding internet/high-tech stocks and, most recently, cancer treatment stocks. When such speculation in a particular segment of the market occurs, it usually means one of two things. First, that the industry segment where stock prices are being pushed up should be doing much better fundamentally 6-months down the road. Or second, if the industry segment has no history of profits, such as the internet and cancer stocks, then these sectors should drop quite dramatically if they do not perform fundamentally within a 6-month period. Overall, what these market segments are telling us is that anything relative to the internet or the treatment of cancer should be the future and, if you don't hop on board the locomotive now, you may miss the ride. It has been my experience, however, that once these types of companies actually begin to earn money, they will begin to sell at real P/E values. When that happens, all these stocks will gradually tumble down and become under-performers in the market. You can only live so long on hype and what the future may bring. Eventually, these companies will have to become real and show profits. Bottom line is, even if these internet stocks start making money, the stock prices will be settling back into reality. As I mentioned last month, I really don't even know what a correction is anymore. However, the one we are experiencing should be swift and probably only about 5% and 8% (at the most) off the recent highs for the Dow and the NASDAQ Composite, respectively. With the Dow's recent closing high of 9184 and current trading level, we are approximately half way there. The NASDAQ Composite is also half way there with a recent closing high of 1917. We must also keep in mind that this mild correction might temporarily rebound, especially given the positive nature of the market on 4/30. I have read it! Reply