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

To: Jan Crawley who wrote (29309)	12/8/1998 2:48:00 PM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

I didn't say they did. I just said they control twice the public float, ie the number of shares they own is twice the number of shares that are in the float. Such a position makes it literally impossible to find shares to borrow for shorting purposes if Deutchebank doesn't want anyone to short the stock. Judging from amazon's e-portal webpage link that was posted a bit ago, I'd say we're less than 30 days away from a total and complete re-launch of Amazon. Also, their cash position is so terrible (negative assets and losing tons more every day) that there is a good chance they may stop selling merchandise entirely by early January. There is no reason for them to even attempt to stock and ship items if they're going to start the e-portal kick. As soon as they stop selling products, BOOM- they stop losing all that cash. There's my prediction... By Jan 15 Amazon will no longer sell physical items of any kind on its website. They have a decent amount of cash left from their junk bond offering- enough to let them run for a couple years as a fledgling e-portal. As Glenn has pointed out, they would be bankrupt or forced to float a secondary stock offering within 9 months or so because their current business model is driving them broke. I've got to hand it to Bezos, it looks like he is going to get away with the biggest corporate sleight of hand i've ever seen. ----------- I do not think that Deutchebank controls 7 plus millions shares in float.

To: Jan Crawley who wrote (29309)	12/8/1998 4:20:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

New Portal Player Set to Go <Picture: --------------------------------------------------------->Infoseek, Starwave and Disney create Go Network; beta to launch next week In the wake of America On-line Inc.'s announcement to acquire Netscape Communications Corp., the Web is about to get another giant portal conglomerate. Infoseek Corp., its Starwave Corp. subsidiary and The Walt Disney Co. will launch the public beta of the Go Network next week. Unlike its competitors, the Go Network has been designed from the ground up as a Web portal and is perhaps the first instance of a site being created specifically for the portal business. The Go Network, which will formally launch early next year, will rely on Infoseek's existing content; the wide array of content from Disney's various holdings; and the sites that are hosted through Seattle-based Starwave, including ABCNews.com, ESPN.com, NFL.com and NASCAR.com. Without question, the Go Network is a consumer brand that Infoseek officials in Sunnyvale, Calif., are banking on to give AOL/Netcenter, Yahoo Inc., GeoCities Inc. and the growing collection of sites owned by Lycos Inc. a run for their money. For Web merchants, the Go Network presents itself as yet another piece of Web real estate--potentially well-traveled real estate--to be claimed. Analysts said it will be interesting to see if Infoseek and Disney can quickly build brand loyalty to bring merchants on board. A business manager at one merchant that has already done extensive advertising on Infoseek said Disney adds a powerful consumer brand identity. "That's enough to at least consider working with the new site," said the business manager, who requested anonymity. With the Go Network, Infoseek is tacking away from the portal pack, choosing to build a brand name for a portal site rather than add branded services around an existing search site. Until now, most portals have evolved from very different types of sites, such as search sites. Yahoo, Lycos and Excite all began as search sites; it wasn't until the past year or so that the portal label was attached to them. Netscape's Netcenter existed for years before the company realized how much money it could make on it. That's not to say that Infoseek.com will stop adding new features, according to officials. It will continue to gain new content, and the company plans to improve on search functions. But that's key: Infoseek was, and always will be, a search site, according to Barak Berkowitz, vice president of marketing at Infoseek. The Go Network is supposed to be something different. The home page of the Go Network, in early demonstrations by Infoseek executives, looks much like the Infoseek.com home page. But the home page itself is completely customizable. The home page will have a search bar, which officials said will use a new language algorithm to eliminate irrelevant hits on words and an improved filtering function to eliminate dead sites from query responses. It will also have page tabs, called Follow-Me Tabs, for items such as community areas and directories. In addition, it has parental control features to keep children out of pornographic content. A history of Infoseek January 1994 Company founded February 1995