>>Maybe you were under pressure to perform today, or maybe your broker made a mistake.<<
Jan, the only time I'm under pressure to perform is from my girl friend.
She's sleeping right now so I can relax now.
Anyway it appears that Bezos will have more pressure to perform than me going forward.
>>This really marks the first time Amazon will be going head to head against an industry titan -- somebody with a high level of brand and business momentum and a clear category leadership position,'' said analyst Derek Brown at Volpe Brown Whelan & Co..
As far as paine webers mistake. That's their problem not mine.
Trust me on that.
>>Seattle, March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc., the Internet's biggest retailer of books and music, said it will add auctions to its Web site to attract more visitors and capitalize on a fast-growing and profitable form of online commerce.
Amazon will go head-to-head with top auctioneer eBay Inc. in allowing consumers and businesses to auction everything from Beanie Babies to computers. Amazon, which started by selling books in 1995, has been adding items such as videos and buying stakes in online companies in a push to become the dominant Web retailer. The auctions will start tomorrow.
Chief Executive Jeff Bezos hopes auctions will get visitors to linger at Amazon's site -- they stay 10 times longer at eBay - - and boost sales of its books and other products. Amazon, which isn't expected to break even until the fourth quarter of next year, also could get a boost from the lucrative business. EBay's gross profit margin is about 85 percent, quadruple Amazon's.
''It is a perfect business for the Internet,'' said Henry Blodget, a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst. ''It's very powerful when integrated with Amazon's other business. There's a lot of cross- selling and cross-marketing they can do.''
Seattle-based Amazon rose 10 9/16 to 149 5/8. San Jose, California-based eBay fell 6 23/32 to 147 25/32.
Amazon will distinguish its auction from eBay's by promising to reimburse as much as $250 on unfulfilled purchases if customers can establish that they paid for an item they never received. EBay insures items up to a value of $200, with a $25 deductible.
Last month, eBay said the U.S. government asked it to provide records and information related to an investigation of possible illegal transactions on its site. EBay is also being investigated by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs over users' complaints about fraud.
Amazon's Auction
Amazon's auction service will be similar to eBay's, which acts like an online classified-ad page, bringing together buyers and sellers. They don't actually handle any inventory, which lowers costs and boosts profits.
Internet auctioneers make money by charging listing fees and taking a commission on each sale. Sellers can negotiate prices with potential buyers through messages posted on a site.
''The auction has proven to be one of the things that the Internet has excelled at providing, and something that consumers have shown they want,'' said analyst Sara Zeilstra at Warburg Dillon Read.
Amazon said it signed up a large number of businesses to run auctions on its Web site. Amazon said it will start the site soon, but didn't give a specific date.
U.S. shoppers are expected to spend $3.2 billion at auctions by 2002, said Jupiter Communications, a market research firm.
''It's like printing money,'' said Marc Johnson, an analyst at Jupiter.
Other online sellers such as Onsale Inc. and uBid Inc. get merchandise from manufacturers and sell it through an auction format. Onsale fell 1 5/16 to 34 1/16. UBid dropped 5 1/2 to 69.
Yahoo! Inc., the biggest Internet directory, also offers auctions through a partnership with Onsale.
Auctions
Amazon plans to offer more than 800 different categories of auction items, with ''tens of thousands'' of different items available, the company said.
EBay has 2.2 million registered users of its service, with 1.8 million product listings, analysts said.
Amazon's auction service could be as big as eBay's business by the end of the year, Blodget said. Last year, EBay generated $47.35 million in sales, compared with $610 million for Amazon.
''Amazon's advantage is that it has 8 million customers versus 2 million that eBay has, and it has a proven ability to switch into other categories,'' Blodget said.
The move into auctions is significant for Amazon because the retailer will now be giving up some amount of control over the quality of service that its customers receive, Brown said.
''Amazon has prided itself on a real dedication to customer service, at the heart of which is Amazon controlling 100 percent of the consumer shopping experience,'' he said. ''This removes a lot of those controls.''
Expansions
Amazon has expanded into other areas with success. This month, it became the top Internet video seller, passing Reel.com, which is owned by Hollywood Entertainment Corp. It became the top online music retailer last year.
''This really marks the first time Amazon will be going head to head against an industry titan -- somebody with a high level of brand and business momentum and a clear category leadership position,'' said analyst Derek Brown at Volpe Brown Whelan & Co.
Separately, Amazon said it bought a 50 percent stake in Pets.com, an online seller of pet food, pet toys and other products for animals.
Amazon in February bought a 46 percent of closely held Drugstore.com, which sells drugs and beauty products on the Web, and said it would consider investments in other online retailers.
) Mar/29/1999 18:27
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