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Technology Stocks : Hastings Entertainment (HAST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LemonHead who wrote (24)	12/7/1998 10:53:00 AM
From: Kip518	Respond to of 63

Hastings and Rentrak Enter Into Long-Term Agreement PR Newswire - December 07, 1998 10:32 PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Rentrak Corporation (Nasdaq: RENT) today announced that it has entered into a new long-term agreement with Hastings Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq: HAST). The terms of the new agreement call for Hastings to obtain substantially more product through Rentrak's PPT system than it has in the past, while providing Hastings the right to obtain cassettes on a revenue sharing basis from any source. In return for its increased buying commitment, Hastings will receive improved terms on product acquired from certain studios which have arrangements with Rentrak. Finally, Hastings will participate in Rentrak's new formovies.com web-site program. Rentrak hailed the agreement as "win-win-win" and said it marks a strengthening of ties between it and Hastings. The agreement assures Hastings access to the product of 85 program suppliers currently participating in Rentrak's PPT system. Rentrak CEO, Ron Berger, said that, "Hastings is one of our most valued relationships and this agreement exemplifies how by working together both companies can achieve results not attainable by either one alone." Berger said he is particularly excited about the web-site services aspect of the agreement. Hastings customers visiting the hastingsentertainment.com program site can use Rentrak's formovies.com program to determine which Hastings store has the rental titles they seek. Meanwhile, consumers visiting Rentrak's formovies.com site and located in the vicinity of a Hastings store will be directed to Hastings for their rental needs. Hastings is a leading multimedia entertainment retailer that sells books, music, software, periodicals, and videocassettes. The company also rents videocassettes and games. Founded in 1968, Hastings currently operates 129 superstores, averaging 21,200 square feet, across 18 states located in the Midwest and western United States. Rentrak is the world's largest non-traditional distributor of videocassettes. Over 10,000 outlets throughout North America stock cassettes leased through Rentrak's sophisticated information processing, electronic ordering, and automated auditing system. The titles of 85 suppliers are offered to retailers who use the PPT system (Per-Per-Transaction) to obtain cassettes at an initial cost which is a fraction of the usual distributor charge. Rental revenues are then shared with the company, which in turn remits a portion to the program supplier. Rentrak also provides web-site services for video retailers as well as consumers of videocassettes through its innovative web-site, formovies.com. A Rentrak subsidiary, BlowOut Video, Inc. operates retail sales stores in five states and a web-site, blowoutvideo.com. Another subsidiary, Commerce Alliance Group, Inc. provides order processing, inventory management, and fulfillment services to Internet retailers and wholesalers and to other businesses requiring just-in-time fulfillment. It can be accessed at commercealliancegroup.com. Rentrak's corporate site is at rentrak.com. When used in this discussion, the words "anticipates," "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could affect the Company's financial results include customer demand for videocassettes subject to Company guarantees and Rentrak customers continuing to comply with the terms of their agreements. Additional factors that could affect the Company's financial results are described in the Company's March 31, 1998, annual report on Form 1OK and the Company's 1OQ for the quarter ended September 30, 1998, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Results of operations in any past period should not be considered indicative of the results to be expected for future periods. SOURCE Rentrak Corporation /CONTACT: Dick Gersh of Richard Gersh Associates, 212-757-1101/ /Web site: formovies.com /Web site: hastingsentertainment.com /Web site: blowoutvideo.com /Web site: commercealliancegroup.com /Web site: rentrak.com

To: LemonHead who wrote (24)	12/10/1998 9:50:00 AM
From: Apache Indian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 63

I believe HAST ran up to catch up with BAMM, but instead BAMM fell and caught up with HAST, so we are all locked up now. Most of the companies that ran up to catch up with their big internet brothers on thanksgiving friday have been spanked back down to earth in the last week, the more I look at AMZN, EBAY, YHOO, AOL the more I feel that Wall Street has taken up upon itself to determine the state of the internet, the monopolies, and the competition one or two years down the road. They have picked and chosen one company in each sector, given it obscenely high valuations, thereby giving these companies the power and clout to either buy out or kill thier competitors. Its a shame really. However I do confess, I jumped into HAST without doing much reasearch, simply went to their website, saw that they had Books, CDs, videos to offer, saw the balance sheet, the positive earnings, the fact that they IPOd at $14, and jumped in on Monday at 19 and change (petty 200 shares.)looking for a quick trade. I realize now that HAST is more of a conventional bookstore that rents out videos, and continues to build in the brick and mortar direction and would not be anything near to AMZN in the future. At least BAMM made it clear it was pursuing AMZN in the internet area. I might sell before the year end to take some tax loss.