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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Bid.com International (BIDS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carole Olkowski who wrote (14088)	3/28/1999 8:30:00 AM
From: Thomas Kirwin	Respond to of 37507

Bid.com Mention - WSJ Article March 26, 1999 Tech Center eBay Forms AOL Marketing Alliance, Announces Sale of $1 Billion in Stock By GEORGE ANDERS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Online auction company eBay Inc. announced a four-year marketing alliance with America Online Inc. and said the company and investors plan to sell about $1 billion of stock, the largest such offering to date by an Internet business. The company said it will pay AOL $75 million over the term of their accord, in return for a "prominent presence" on AOL's various sites. The two companies already have a looser marketing alliance, reached in late 1997. In that accord, eBay agreed to pay AOL $12 million over three years. The new agreement gives both companies something they want. eBay gains better access to AOL's 16 million members, the biggest pool of Internet users on any single service. AOL, meanwhile, ties in more closely to one of the most heavily visited sites for electronic commerce. Running Ads on eBay The companies also said AOL's sales force will sell ads for a co-branded site to be known as "eBay at AOL." eBay traditionally has run few ads, but the co-branded site may take a more-commercial approach. Margaret Whitman, eBay's chief executive, said in an interview that she will welcome ads for "shipping companies, packing supplies and other services that could help our users." She said eBay will move cautiously in seeking ads from retailers that compete directly with the site's own auctions. Investors reacted bullishly to the marketing agreement. In New York Stock Exchange composite trading Thursday, AOL shares rose $9.375, or 8%, to $126.50. Shares of eBay rose $14, or 9.6%, to $159.375 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. In the stock offering, eBay itself plans to sell 4.25 million shares, while top executives, board members and venture-capital investors have filed to sell a further 2.25 million shares. At current stock prices, that offering would raise $677 million for the company and $359 million for selling shareholders. Ms. Whitman said the stock sale will give eBay "enormous financial flexibility," particularly if the company pursues acquisitions. As of Dec. 31, eBay had $72 million in cash and short-term investments. The proposed stock offering would increase that amount nearly tenfold. Ms. Whitman said eBay has no specific takeover plans, "but in the next 12 to 18 months, that could be something we want to do." Excited investors Thursday bid up the shares of Bid.com International Inc., a Canadian auction company, on speculation that eBay might want to buy it. eBay said it never comments on rumors. International Expansion Ms. Whitman also said eBay plans to use some of its cash to step up its international expansion. The company recently created special sections on its site for Canadian and British users. Similar services will follow soon for the rest of Europe and much of Asia, Ms. Whitman said. Among the selling shareholders, eBay's chairman, Pierre Omidyar, has filed to sell 790,000 shares, or about 2% of his total holdings. Ms. Whitman has filed to sell 211,000 shares, or about 3% of her total holdings. She said the sales don't reflect any diminished confidence in eBay's future. "We continue to be excited about this company," Ms. Whitman said. "I see great possibilities for us more clearly than I did six months ago." Since eBay went public last September, its shares have surged more than 25-fold in value. That has created three billionaires at the company -- Mr. Omidyar, Ms. Whitman and Jeffrey Skoll, a vice president and co-founder of the company. Ms. Whitman said she can't speak for the other two billionaires, but said she may make periodic small sales of stock according to a formula, so she can diversify her holdings without creating investor anxiety that she is signaling her views on the business.