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

To: MrLuckyman who wrote (22016)	10/16/1998 11:30:00 PM
From: Mark Fowler	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

It is not Bettelsman that Bezo should be concerned about, it's what Riggio's game plan is, with the publisher's backing that will cause the most pain for Amazon.<< Mr. Luckyman, Why would Bertelsmann offer Amzn 2 billion dollars to buy a piece of their business and Barns & Noble.com 2 million? IMO, it's because Amzn's business plan is a blueprint of the way business should be done over the internet. And i doubt that Amzn's competitors can gain expertise by mergers. Amzn has far more lead, customers and revenue comparisons are huge.

To: MrLuckyman who wrote (22016)	10/16/1998 11:46:00 PM
From: umbro	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

implied volatility on Amazon.com Inc. options shot up to over 100 percent in the nearby at-the-money contract after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news) filed suit against the online bookseller. Traders noted that puts were being bid higher at the close, even as the stock held gains to finish 2-3/8 higher at 99-7/16. ''There's concern about (the suit),'' said one options analyst. ''When you're Wal-Mart and you file a suit against a young company, you generally win. You just tie them up in court.'' [emphasis added: biz.yahoo.com]

To: MrLuckyman who wrote (22016)	10/18/1998 11:53:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

10/17/98 - Wal-Mart Sues Amazon.com Over Trade Secrets Oct. 17 (San Jose Mercury News/KRTBN)--Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed a lawsuit Friday against online bookseller Amazon.com and its venture backer Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, alleging they infringed the Bentonville, Ark.-based company"s trade secrets. In a 12-page complaint filed in Benton County, Arkansas, Wal-Mart accused the two firms and another Kleiner Perkins-backed start-up of recruiting some of its top talent -- people with critical information about Wal-Mart"s merchandising and distribution. The giant retailer, which operates more than 2,300 stores in the United States, is seeking an injunction forbidding Amazon.com from using "confidential" Wal-Mart knowledge about its inventory and retailing systems. Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, while noting that his firm had not been served with the complaint, dismissed the argument over trade secrets. "I"m confident Amazon.com is not interested in anyone"s trade secrets," said Doerr, a persuasive recruiter who serves on Amazon.com"s board. "They"re just trying to hire the best people, wherever they are." In a prepared statement, Amazon.com echoed the same theme. "Even if every single Amazon.com employee had come from Wal-Mart, it would still be less than two-tenths of 1 percent of their workforce," the statement said. "They"re about 300 times our size and probably sold more yesterday than we sold in the last 12 months." The legal thrust reflects a sharpening economic battle between Amazon.com, which is trying to move into new online areas like CD"s, and Wal-Mart, which has developed a huge database of what customers prefer. Over the summer, Amazon.com paid $280 million for Junglee Corp., which offers electronic shopping services to World Wide Web sites, and PlanetAll, a provider of online address books. Those developments have led some analysts to suggest that Amazon.com, which has been applauded for its ease of use, wants to be the Wal-Mart of cyberspace. It was clear that Wal-Mart is irked by the loss of some top officials, including Richard Dalzell, now the chief information officer of Amazon.com. The lawsuit argues that Amazon.com"s recruiting of key talent will allow the online company to duplicate Wal-Mart"s "superior" information systems. "There"s an awful lot of computer technical knowledge in Seattle and Silicon Valley," said Betsy Reithemeyer, a senior manager for corporate affairs at Wal-Mart. "If they"re coming to Bentonville, Ark., they"re looking for something specific." Reithemeyer estimated that Amazon.com and another Kleiner Perkins-backed start-up, Drugstore.com, had hired about 15 former Wal-Mart employees or vendors who had worked closely with the Arkansas giant. But people unconnected to the lawsuit were guardedly skeptical about Wal-Mart"s chances of prevailing on trade secrets. "It looks like a mixed bag," said Anne Deibert, a partner at the law firm of McCutcheon, Doyle, Brown & Enersen. "The allegation is that Amazon.com is trying to get former employees who have this knowledge to reveal it." "But there are some problems with that. They have to show that the employees do have the knowledge and will disclose it in their jobs....Amazon.com can come in with declarations from those employees who say, "Absolutely not. We haven"t divulged any trade secrets." By Scott Herhold -0- Visit Mercury Center, the World Wide Web site of the San Jose Mercury News, at sjmercury.com (c) 1998, San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. WMT, AMZN, END!A13?SJ-WAL-MART