Here James, copy & paste.
They are pretty much the same news, don't you think?
Posted at 11:28 a.m. PDT; Wednesday, June 17, 1998
Investors bet on Amazon
by Thomas W. Haines
Seattle Times business reporter
When Amazon.com took its Internet book-selling business to the stock market last year, conservative, seasoned investors asked one question: Where are the profits?
Why gamble, they asked, on an Internet dream, an upstart company in a new market that might not make money for years?
Now, a year later, Amazon.com still hasn't made a dime.
But more and more investors are abandoning their old ways, figuring Amazon.com is worth the bet.
Shares of the Seattle-based start-up have shot up in recent weeks, the latest proof that in the Internet world, at least, the promise of future profits is enough to win investor dollars today.
Over the past 10 trading days, Amazon.com's shares have jumped 88 percent, from $42.25 June 3 to $79.625 at midday today.
This leap follows an already healthy climb during the company's first year as a stockholder-owned company, which led to a stock split in May. An investor who purchased $1,000 worth of Amazon.com stock at $18 when it went public in May 1997, now holds stock worth more than $8,000.
Much of the recent boost appears to be driven by news last week that Amazon.com opened its online CD music site, a complement to its pioneering bookselling business. Investors seem to believe the music site is Amazon.com's first step from bookseller to wide-ranging retailer in the emerging Internet marketplace.
But heavy trading, up, up, up, day after day?
Consider these numbers: Amazon.com shares were up $6 by midday today after climbing $7.875 yesterday. Monday, while the Dow Jones industrial average was dropping more than 200 points, Amazon.com shot up $4.75.
Shares dropped $1.50 Friday, but only after four straight days of climbing, up $8.375, $2.875, $5 and $2.
"We haven't made any announcements or been to any conferences or anything like that (this week). So it's nothing we've done," said Kay Dangaard, Amazon.com's media director.
Stock analysts, too, are left to speculate.
Ryan Jacob, who's recommended the stock from the beginning, said once-cautious investors now believe Amazon.com is a viable company for the long-term.
"Amazon.com is really looked at as a proxy for (electronic commerce), much the way AOL and Yahoo! (other Internet companies) are looked at as proxies for their respective segments," Jacob said.
"I think most investors in the company believe it will be a multibillion-dollar company, me included."
Indeed, shares of America Online, the Internet service provider, and Yahoo!, maker of an Internet search engine, have fared well lately. When Amazon.com went public last year, much of the skepticism about the company was rooted in fears that more-established, deep-pocketed competitors would beat the upstart at its own game.
Now, though, Amazon.com generally is considered to have weathered early attacks from book-selling competitors such as Barnes & Noble and Borders.
Amazon.com's business is fairly straightforward. Shoppers visiting its Web site select books, and now music CDs, type in a credit-card number, and the book or CD is sent to the customer through the mail.
In the first quarter of this year, Amazon.com reported sales of $87.4 million, more than five times the year-earlier figure. But the company, which has grown to more than 1,000 employees in four years, also spent millions on sales and marketing and developing new online features for its stores. As a result, Amazon.com lost $9.26 million, or 40 cents a share, in the first quarter.
Amazon.com faces more competition with its move into music. But with 2.2 million customers who already have clicked through Amazon.com's Internet site, it can leverage what is considered to be one of the strongest online customer bases.
The big question still remains. What if Amazon.com doesn't deliver on its promise of profits? During the short reign of the Internet, investors have shown they can sour as quickly as they sweeten to a stock.
Netscape Communications, the maker of Internet software that competes with Microsoft's products, once saw its shares flying high at more than $82.
That was 1996. Netscape has failed to deliver profits since then. Its shares have tracked the company's misfortune, closing yesterday below $25.
Thomas W. Haines' phone message number is 206-464-2537. His e-mail address is: thaines@seattletimes.com
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