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Non-Tech : Barnes & Noble (BKS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Roger who wrote (556)	4/1/1999 11:41:00 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1691

The lead underwriters are Goldman, Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Saloman Smith Barney and Wit Capital. The offering price has not been set. BKS currently owns 50% of barnesandnoble.com. 15.0-20.0% of barnesandnoble.com will be sold off in the IPO, leaving BKS with a 40.0-43.5% stake. More details can be found in the S-1 at: sec.gov

To: Roger who wrote (556)	4/2/1999 1:31:00 AM
From: Jerry S.	Respond to of 1691

Roger, How's this answer: I don't know, I don't know, and no. Seriously though, I would think you would have to be a "biggie" to get in on this IPO. Whoever can will make a killing. As far as the offering price, I can only speculate. BKS announced that they were offering up to $200 million in stock. So as a guess I would say 10 million shares at $20? Who knows, they may be able to raise more than that. There have been rumors that BKS s/h will get IPO shares. As far as I know that cannot be confirmed and I seriously doubt it. However you should benefit indirectly by the market value of BNBN shares held by BKS theoretically increasing the value of the BKS share price. Now with AMZN worth $28 billion, it would seem to me that a BNBN would be worth at least $5 billion (hell, Priceline.com has an 11 billion market cap with 1/2 of the 1998 sales of BNBN). BKS's share then would be about $2 billion. BKS current book value is $680 million and market cap is $2.2 billion - don't you think BKS's current share price just might have some upside here? I do since I would expect BKS to have at least a $1.50 eps for '99 and with a conservative 25 p/e which would render a minimum $37.50 price without the BNBN investment. A BNBN worth $5B would equate to about $30/share value to BKS in this unrealized asset. Again, imo, the preceding estimations are all very conservative and I think minimum valuations. Damn, I am convincing myself here .... I think I'll call Ditech Funding and get that 2nd mortgage!