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

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (42876)	2/27/1999 5:15:00 AM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

William, I'm back. @ days of golf and no "Thing" and you to watch is, all I can bear. Lets see what's happened since I've been gone. >> Seattle, Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. shares climbed 13 percent after the top online book merchant said it will enter the rapidly growing market of selling drugs over the Internet by buying 46 percent of closely held Drugstore.com. Amazon shares surged 14 1/16 to 125 and was the fifth most- active U.S. stock. Shares of bricks-and-mortar drugstore chains declined. Rite Aid Corp. dropped 4 1/16 to 40 3/16. CVS Corp. slid 3 1/2 to 52 15/16. Walgreen Co. fell 1 1/4 to 31 5/8. The investment bolsters Amazon.com Chairman Jeffrey Bezos's strategy to transform the online merchant of books, video and software into a major retailer. Amazon.com raised $1.25 billion through the sale of convertible notes last month, saying it would use the proceeds to expand into new product areas. ''The opportunities are really tremendous,'' said Lauren Cooks Levitan, an analyst with BancBoston Robertson Stephens. ''This points to a whole new way of Amazon flexing their muscle and establishing themselves as the dominant e-tailer.'' Robertson Stephens raised its recommendation on Amazon to ''strong buy'' from ''buy,'' citing the tie-up with Drugstore.com. Levitan said the news and the potential for more announcements about other new ventures could push the company's shares back toward 199 1/8, the record high it hit last month. Drugstore.com Drugstore.com distributes over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, prescription drugs and beauty products directly to the home. Customers had trouble accessing the site, which opened late yesterday, because Drugstore.com couldn't handle the traffic, spokeswoman Debby Fry Wilson said. ''People are lined up at the front door,'' she said. Technicians are working to resolve the problem, which was discovered this morning and should be fixed late this afternoon, she said. Based on this morning's traffic, the company forecasts the site will have 10 million hits by the end of today, its first official day of business, Wilson said. The Redmond, Washington-based Internet start-up is led by former Microsoft Corp. online executive Peter Neupert and backed by Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz and the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The companies declined to say how much Amazon paid for the stake. Drugstore.com will let customers mail in new prescriptions, have existing ones transferred from other pharmacies or have their doctors call them in to a toll-free number, 1-800- drugstore. Amazon's customers can reach drugstore's Web site by clicking on a button that will be on the bookseller's home page. The Drugstore.com startup is among a group of new Internet companies that hope to change the way medicine is practiced by linking patients, physicians, drug retailers and hospitals through the Internet. Health-care has emerged as one of the hottest new areas among Internet companies in recent months. Healtheon Corp., a company that processes health-care transactions over the Internet, almost quadrupled on Feb. 11, its first day of trading following an initial stock sale. Neupert estimates that the U.S. online market for drugs, vitamins and health and beauty products is worth $150 billion annually. Drugstore has a experienced leader in Neupert. Prior to Drugstore.com, Neupert was vice president of news and publishing for the interactive media group at Microsoft, which included the online magazine Slate. He was responsible for online ad sales and business development. Neupert was senior director of strategic relationships for Microsoft's Advanced Consumer Technology Group where he managed business and marketing relationships to develop the Internet. 16:54:07 02/25/1999 Kind of interesting. Kleiner, Perkins is @ it again. Seattle is still hot. Kleiner throws it's $$ at Drugstore, Howard Schultze founder of Starbucks, also of Seattle throws his $$ @ drugstore. Then coming right behind is, Bezos. Who is as you know another Kleiner Perkins child. This selling drugs on the Internet could be a very high margin business. Don't you think?? Ps Dr TomD doesn't think this will work. Wall Street and all the elephants obviously do. Did I see the "thing" was up 15 points? Just on the news. It's another buying opportunity for you. Trust me on that.

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (42876)	2/27/1999 12:10:00 PM
From: Mike M	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

How do you know they're wrong? William- that is the point...No one knows whether AMZN will or won't prosper. All we know is there are people out there telling folks it is OK to "invest" in a company capitalized at $18B whose earnings are a "few years away"....and, "we think that development of brand name and adding features may someday make them a profitable company, but right now....Well, they can still borrow a billion and, though the losses mount, revenue is rising...." It is sheer speculation whether AMZN or some other as yet unnamed internet company, or WMT etc. etc., will be the ultimate internet retailer of choice. Some will survive...The survivors will not all prosper...How many will ever justify an $18B market cap....with a book value that is mostly good will? "We don't really know, but buy AMZN because if we are correct and really can see the future, AMZN is there..." "If we are wrong...well, never mind, we think we're right. Oh, by the way if you buy this stock on margin, we require a little extra capital, you understand!" Mike