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Non-Tech : Borders Group (BGP) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacques Tootight who wrote (184)	2/15/1999 6:40:00 PM
From: Big Dog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 411

Dear R.C.: You've asked "...like 98% of all Borders commentators, [you're] hung up on Amazon's profitability. No one yet, has been able to enlighten me as to how that's relevant to Borders." Well: (i) since Borders pre-announced lower than anticipated earnings for the quarter (because of weather and unused gift certificates), you along with other commentators and posters have wondered whether its AMZN's or BKS's ".com" sites that is the "real" reason for the unmet earnings mark and same-store sales disappointment; (ii) Wall Street has seized the "AMZN e-commerce concept" and has convinced many investors that its stock should ignore any basic valuation measure, whereas one "hiccup" has lead Wall Street to ignore Borders to the point that its price-to-sales ratio is .48 (unbelievable); (iii) AMZN is one of the top three book sellers and is the young upstart, so the comparison with BGP and BKS is inevitable (as is Tiger Woods and Nicklaus; Gordon and Earnhart); and the 64 million dollar question is whether, in the future, the best way to sell an age-old product is through discount-oriented superstores (found in every popular mall), or over the computer, or some combination of both. Thus, the constant comparisons.