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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Tokyo Joe's Cafe / Societe Anonyme/No Pennies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hope who wrote (71056)	4/23/1999 7:04:00 PM
From: westpacific	Respond to of 119973

Check this out - time to buy Starbucks Coffee, new INET venture! Starbucks plans Net venture, sans coffee By Reuters Special to CNET News.com April 23, 1999, 5:20 a.m. PT Starbucks, which yesterday reported a hefty 29-percent rise in second quarter earnings, said it was expanding online into a new "multibillion-dollar" category and would use its chain of 2,200 coffee bars to promote the undisclosed Internet venture. Chairman Howard Schultz said in a conference call yesterday that he would reveal the particulars of the prospective, noncoffee-related online business by the end of the current quarter. In its latest quarter, the company reported net earnings of $18 million, or 10 cents a share, up from $14 million, or 8 cents a share in the comparable year-ago period. Earnings were in line with analysts' expectations of 10 cents a share, according to First Call, which tracks such data. Starbucks launched a corporate Web site last year that allows customers to buy coffee online and learn about its products, but Schultz said the new venture would not be coffee-related. The conference call was made available to reporters on a tape-delayed basis. Schultz said the new venture would not distract the company from its core business of selling food, beverages, and other products at its ever-expanding chain of stores. Revenues for the second quarter ended March 28 rose 27 percent to $376 million from $295 million, the company reported on yesterday. Schultz said the online business would take advantage of the fact that about 70 percent of Starbucks' customers have access to the Internet, far above average. Starbucks' customers also tend to be the relatively young and well-to-do "eyeballs" sought by Internet companies, he said. "We don't only have the eyeball, we have the whole body, and we have them trusting the experience that Starbucks has," Schultz said. Schultz has been an aggressive supporter of Internet businesses and is on the board of both eBay and Drugstore.com, two high-profile consumer-oriented start-ups. He said Starbucks would be able to dramatically cut the cost of promotion because of the exposure the new venture will have in the company's retail outlets. "This strategy is not just another company trying to add a 'dot com' to its name,"Schultz said. He said Starbucks would "aggressively build an undisputed leadership position" in the undisclosed product category, possibly by investing in and acquiring related online businesses.