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Technology Stocks : OnSale Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PAL who wrote (2989)	12/30/1998 3:01:00 PM
From: j_b	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4903

<<Look at companies which try to maximize profit at any cost: Nike with child labor, another US company with prison labor, Burlington coat tried to minimize cost buy going to China without truely considering the ramifications, they got dog furs whcih have to be recall.I don't think we disagree.>> I don't think we really disagree. "Profit at any cost" does not maximize profit in the long-term. It is strictly short-term thinking. Corporate image and branding play a large part in long-term profitablility, as does production efficiency, planning, market identification, etc. <<Maybe the company has no profit, but will reap rewards to shareholders>> Long-term, this will never happen unless the company gets sold. If there is no profit, there is no value. Why would the purchasing company buy a business that has no profitable prospects? No company is out there to lose money. <<I am investing in a company where the share price goes up.>> What's your time horizon? As an example, look at AMZN. They have a market cap that is about 10 times that of Barnes and Noble or Borders, yet those two companies show profits. In ten years (assuming that AMZN still shows a loss and the others are still profitable), which one do you think will have a better stock price chart? By then, no one will want to buy AMZN "on the come". They will insist on results. However, over the short-term, people are willing to overlook that market reality.