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

To: llamaphlegm who wrote (27620)	11/21/1998 11:24:00 PM
From: Tom D	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

<<<what possible advantage does amzn have over other companies?>>> The KPCB keiretsu, combined with the first-mover advantages. I would never have invested in this company if it was outside of the keiretsu. Did you see Glenn's postings about it, a few weeks ago, from the Fortune article? If not, I think I have the link numbers at the PC in my office, and can post them when I go in tomorrow. Let me know if you missed them. The Fortune article said it much better than the following article. But I do have this link, from when my little medical group was trying to give birth to a software company. Somebody posted this article on our corporate intranet. <<Three years ago, Doerr was already a famous Silicon Valley venture capitalist. But the event that moved him to global business fame was the arrival of the Internet. Recognizing the Net's potential before almost anyone else, Doerr has turned Kleiner Perkins into the cradle of the Web revolution. Doerr and his partners have backed dozens of ventures building and defining the Internet, from America Online to iVillage, and from Ascend to Verisign. Netscape and @Home are two of the best-known Doerr projects. But Doerr prefers to talk about linked "initiatives" rather than stand-alone investments. In June, 1996 KPCB organized a $100 million Java Fund to back a slate of startups using Sun's Java programming language, including Active Software, Calico, Internet Security Systems, Marimba, and Netiva. As the avatar of the Web, Doerr's greatest contribution may prove to be his ability to network all of KPCB's investment for mutual advantage. Thus Intuit's Quicken incorporates the Netscape Navigator. Early adopters of Sun's Java were Netscape and Macromedia. If you've seen this kind of connectedness before, think Microsoft. Although Doerr protests otherwise, with his portfolio of software and netware companies, his drive to create entrepreneurial teams, and his capacity to sight new emerging markets John Doerr may be Bill Gates's greatest competitor.>> fastcompany.com Now I know HJ will give me sht for posting something positive about Doerr. But I got fixated on him when the readers of Upside voted him the 3rd most powerful person in the world in multimedia--behind Gates and Grove. Not to belabor the "doing one's homework" idea, but the keiretsu collectively is probably larger and more powerful than MSFT, as far as the internet is concerned. Realistically, thats what is necessary to compete with the likes of Wal-Mart, Bertlesmann, and MSFT, should they join the fray. We are talking about titans with market caps that are a significant fraction of $1 trillion. But, the bears knew that about AMZN, in its context in the keiretsu, right? And one little note I forgot to make about your comment about my delusions of superiority--I did 'fess up to losing over $100K last year on a single stock. I will never forget the gut-wrenching feeling of massive failure in regards to investing. That is what this flurry of postings is really about this evening. Plus,I am on call this weekend, and Murphy's law of call says that as soon as you get to sleep, the &%$# beeper detonates. So, I thought I'd hang out on the thread for a change. Best Regards, Tom