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

To: Don Westermeyer who wrote (37457)	1/28/1999 4:39:00 PM
From: Olu Emuleomo	Respond to of 164684

Amazon.com, Winner In Stock Market, Wins Favor Among Bond Investors ====================================================================== By Pallavi Gogoi, Staff Reporter NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Amazon.com Inc., the Internet darling of the stock market, whipped up a frenzy in the bond market Thursday as fixed-income investors went wild for its first convertible-bond offering. The 10-year notes, convertible into common stock at a conversion price to be determined, were marketed to institutional investors in a private placement. Because of the mad rush to get into the deal, lead manager Morgan Stanley Dean Witter increased the size of the deal to $800 million from the original $500 million, and could increase it to over $1 billion, investors said. "The Internet craze is contagious and everybody wants to be in on this. And given their ballistic sales figures, Amazon.com has proved that its model works," said Christopher Towle, portfolio manager at Lord Abbett & Co., who buys convertible bonds. Amazon.com "has great earnings potential, great business growth and the most important factor - it's a bookmark on everybody's Internet site," Towle added. Amazon.com's move into the convertible-debt market was perfectly timed, investors noted, as it followed the Seattle-based company's better-than-expected quarterly results reported Wednesday. The online retailer posted a loss of 14 cents a share for the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street expectations for a loss of 18 cents a share. Amazon.com also reported solid customer growth and said holiday sales from its website quadrupled to $252.9 million during the period from $66 million the previous year. A source close to the convertible-bond deal said the offering was initially slated to be shopped for four days and priced next Tuesday. "But no sooner did word spread in the Street, when calls flooded in and the deal was oversubscribed before mid-morning," the source said. Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.