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

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (32257)	1/2/1999 7:18:00 PM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Here's a way Amazon could pull a profit this quarter, if they really didnt care about fundamentally bringing the SEC down on accounting practices of every company. Use the 400% christmas shopping rush as a backdrop, then use your hyper-inflated stock as the "bait." Tell all of your workers that if they work overtime for free, you'll give them an extra 100 Amazon options. Tell them to tell all their friends about the deal, and suddenly you have an extra thousand temp workers who are working for "free" for the holiday rush. Since the SEC hasn't gotten around to stopping the practice of writing off employee stock options yet (although it's been said they are about to) you can have all this free labor that doesn't increase your expenses for the quarter, thus allowing you to have the "same" fulfilment expenses as the previous quarters, but with 400% more revenue. In this scenario it is very likely they could show a profit. If Amazon actually tries to pull this off, Bezos will win my respect as having the biggest balls on the planet. He'll also be known as the company that finally ended the free ride of option compensation accounting tricks for most high tech companies in the US. The SEC will come down on them like a ton of bricks, i'd wager.

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (32257)	1/3/1999 12:59:00 AM
From: Dwight E. Karlsen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

It ended up with a figure of around 190-220 million if I recall correctly. Even though the analyst sales estimate range is below that, with the high end being about 190 million, do you think that sales of ~205-~210 million would be a disappointment? I think so. I think I've read where at least one analyst has suggested/hoped/speculated that AMZN may come in as high as ~400-~450 million, just maybe. With that kind of speculation (and surely we've seen those expectations in the stock price ramp-up), is AMZN getting primed to disappoint the street?

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (32257)	1/3/1999 11:47:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Of course, nothing surprises me with these guys anymore. Just a week earlier Amazon sponsored a "poll" showing that consumers planned to spend 300% more online than last year, and that books and CDs would be their most popular purchase. A great way to keep the flow of hype press releases going, while sidestepping securities regulations. KIS, You could get me started in an area that annoys me to no end. We still have the Covey statement that Amazon would be profitable without marketing costs. However, marketing costs include fulfillment, credit card charges, shipping fees, etc. No one has a clue how much was truly spent on marketing. I suppose that is a trade secret so as to not help the competition??? Placing the books, CDS and videos in boxes is high tech. The bookkeeping at Amazon is the strangest I have ever seen. At least, the bookkeeping that is deseminated in the 10Qs and 10Ks. Covey is not a billionaire yet but has made many millions and took it in cash as a glorified accountant. I bet my accountant, which handles a variety of clients, would love to have Covey's income. Glenn