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

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (23170)	10/27/1998 12:52:00 AM
From: e. boolean	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Bob or Glenn - What is the $337M in "marketable securities" that makes up the bulk of AMZN's assets? e.b.

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (23170)	10/27/1998 7:50:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Bob, You did an excellent job of explaining the filing. I am not a CPA either but do understand a fair amount of what was intended. Now, what I don't understand about this filing and what really bugs me about it is those "proforma" income statements. This is purchase accounting, not pooling. In a pooling, as I understand it (and I'm not a CPA), you do go back and show historical results as if the two companies had been one. But, this is a purchase. AMZN bought the stock of Junglee and allocated the purchase price to tangible and intangible assets. This point is correct as far as I know. This would be typical or at least reasonable if it were a pooling. I suspect this must be legal even though it was a purchase and the intent could likely be to make current results look better than the prior results. Amazon does not have a problem amortizing the goodwill. Many companys try to write it off as a one time expense so earnings going forward appear better. This is not the case for Amazon and they clearly know it. No one cares about earnings so let's generate book value without substance so to speak. I suspect the release tomorrow will be compared to the numbers in this filing which will make them appears from an earnings point of view to be much better. Book value will increase and cash on hand has increased as though there is no cash burn. Glenn