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

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (109385)	3/13/1999 12:10:00 PM
From: hdl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Mohan,Gigabuys could be hurt by buy.com, etc. even if the others aren't (very) profitable

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (109385)	3/13/1999 2:08:00 PM
From: DellFan	Respond to of 176387

Re: Gigabuys II Mohan the Munificent- The veritable fount of the pertinant whose frequent and most welcome posts forever inform and enlighten, greetings and blessings unto thee. Is there any empirical evidence that Buy.com is selling at less than cost (including ad revenues)? I am not aware of any financial data avalaible. If not, is it reasonable to believe that a company which is contemplating an IPO would plan on showing a gross margin (including ad revenues) that can't be justified when viewed in the light of prospective top line growth in etailing? Buy.com certainly has a plan. The battle among mass etailers has been based on razor thin margins and huge volume. No doubt that will require a huge investment before critical mass is reached (ding dong, hey, here's softbank at the door again). But that seems to me to be the way mass etailers are battling it out. Will Buy.com be one of the survivors? Will Amazon? Only time will tell. Wal-mart won the bricks and mortar battle using the same fundamental strategy and may end up winning the cyberspace battle as well. We'll just have to wait this one out Whatever the outcome, I believe that the survivors in the mass etail market will be incredibly few in number, yet extremely rewarding to investors. But my question is, will Gigabuys really enter the fray in a serious way? Is there a strategy that would have beat Wal-mart in the bricks and mortar arena and has Gigabuys found it? In the cyberspace war, will the old Wal-mart strategy not prevail? Some cite Dell's superior service. But I really don't believe that that will not win the etailing war. It has to be something else. And if not razor-thin margins, what will it be?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (109385)	3/13/1999 6:12:00 PM
From: jbn3	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 176387

re www.buy.com Mohan, I understand that the buy.com concept is to sell at or below cost in order to increase market share. They are willing to incur a current loss, to some (?) extent offset by advertising revenues, in order to develop a brand name and following. As you pointed out, there are substantive weaknesses in the concept for the long-term. However, I notice that their product lines include books, cd's, computers and peripherals, software, etc. buy.com What do you envision the short-term (the extent of time they are willing to incur this loss without going into Chapter proceedings) impact on the other on-line retail outlets (Amazon, CDnow, gigabuys.com, etc.) to be? To what extent may this depress margins and/or sales? And at the point where they are forced to move their prices up to an at-or-above-cost level to avoid bankruptcy, how do you foresee the long-term impact on other internet retail corporations? I am not concerned about their potential impact on DELL's core computer operations, as I don't see how they can possibly become as efficient or develop the quality or support system that DELL has. I DO have concerns about competition in the peripherals and software area where they offer direct competition with gigabuys. Thanks, 3.