To: judge who wrote (66165 ) 4/5/1999 2:13:00 PM From: VINCENT MALGAPO Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 119973
BKS News! Just got off the phone with investor relations and the IPO is still planned for late April but could happen as early as April 18. They filed with the SEC on March 18 but it takes 30-45 days to get approval. They could not give me the number of shares offered or pricing yet but said it should be hugely successful. Monday April 5 12:08 PM ET Barnesandnoble.Com Affiliate Numbers Soar NEW YORK (Reuters) - No. 2 online bookseller Barnesandnoble.com said Monday that as of April 1 it had increased its affiliates to 100,000 from 5,250 a year earlier, a leap that underlines the firm's efforts to increase Web exposure through online partners. Barnesandnoble.com, the joint venture of leading U.S. bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE:BKS - news) and German media giant Bertelsmann AG., said its affiliate program is growing by more than 2,000 members per week. Affiliates range from corporations to authors, publishers and personal home pages. The rapid expansion of the barnesandnoble.com affiliate program comes as part of widespread efforts by online retailers to make sites accessible via an ever-increasing number of spots on the Web. Barnes & Noble and Bertelsmann plan to make an initial public offering of 15 to 20 percent of barnesandnoble.com some time later this year. Barnesandnoble.com affiliates sell books, magazines, and other products on their sites by linking to the online bookseller. Affiliates earn a 5 to 7 percent commission on each book, gift certificate, magazine subscription, software, music, or video sold through the program; there is no charge for participation. Barnesandnoble.com's chief competitor, Amazon.com Inc., is the largest online retailer and bookseller in terms of revenues. Amazon.com started out selling books but has branched out into music, videos, drugs and, recently, pet supplies. Barnesandnoble.com has around 1.5 million unique users for its online shopping site. Amazon.com does not break down its users into categories but counts around 6.2 million for its online network.