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

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (25095)	11/9/1998 8:27:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

November 9, 1998 The Orphan Goliath vs. Goliath: Booksellers Fight for Title of 'the Little Guy' By KARA SWISHER Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL On the Internet, like everywhere else, size matters. Most companies fight over whose presence on the Web is bigger, finagling criteria such as audience, daily page views and the "stickiness" factor -- the online industry's indelicate way of describing the amount of time a user spends on a particular site. But not the top two online booksellers. Amazon.com Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc.'s electronic division have been slugging it out for the mantle of the embattled little guy who beats the evil giant. The David-and-Goliath allegory was at the center of a news-release skirmish last week between the two giants. The acrimony has been long-standing. Barnes & Noble sued Amazon just before the upstart's public offering in 1997, charging false advertising. That legal action was later settled. Recently, the New York-based retailer --whose online barnesandnoble.com effort has lagged behind the Seattle-based Web venture -- agreed to join forces with German media giant Bertelsmann to better compete with its rival. The latest fracas started on Friday with a deal by Barnes & Noble to spend $600 million to purchase Ingram Books, the biggest wholesale book distributor in the U.S. While Wall Street was pondering the ramifications of the sale, because Amazon is one of Ingram's biggest customers, Amazon released a statement. Noting its plans to diversify its supplier base and increase direct purchases from publishers, it ominously added that the Barnes & Noble-Ingram-Bertelsmann triumvirate "undoubtedly will raise industrywide concerns." At the end of the statement, Amazon founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos declared with a flourish: "Worry not... . Goliath is always in range of a good slingshot." Barnes & Noble quickly returned the volley to Mr. Bezos, who has become a billionaire from his large stake in Amazon. Pointing out the company's $6 billion market capitalization and four million customers, it replied: "We suppose you know a Goliath when you see one. Your company is now worth more than Barnes & Noble, Borders and all of the independent bookstores combined. ... Slingshots and pot shots should not be part of your arsenal." Leaving no stone unthrown, Amazon fired back in a release titled "Amazon.com Issues a Statement Regarding Barnesandnoble.com's Statement Regarding Amazon. com's Statement about Barnes & Noble Inc." with a single word: "Oh."