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To: Sarmad Y. Hermiz who wrote (55142)	5/4/1999 7:20:00 PM
From: Rob S.	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

I'm not going to try to guess what it will do on one day. The trend is much clearer: play with fire and get burned. Safer now to sell short on rallies than it is to buy long on dips. But it has sold off quite a bit and could be ready for a bounce.

To: Sarmad Y. Hermiz who wrote (55142)	5/4/1999 8:32:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Virgin in e-commerce debut with online "megastore" By Scott Hillis LOS ANGELES, May 3 (Reuters) - Virgin Entertainment Group on Monday became the latest entrant in the electronic commerce arena by launching its online "megastore" to sell music, videos and books over the Internet. The debut of the online commerce site at will pit the child of flamboyant British entrepreneur Richard Branson, the Virgin Group 1/8VA.CN 3/8, against popular Internet retailers such as Amazon.com <AMZN.O> and CDNow. Glen Ward, president of the E-Commerce division under Virgin Entertainment, said the site would rely on the company's brand as well as unique articles about the music industry to draw customers. "We think we're bringing something different online, and in Virgin fashion we believe we're bringing some added value for the customer," Ward said in a telehone interview from Virgin e-commerce's headquarters here. The online store would initially serve customers in the United States, but Virgin planned to launch other sites catering to the British, European and Japanese markets by the end of the year, Ward said. The site on Monday highlighted music offerings from Vonda Shepard, who plays a character on television's "Ally McBeal", a video about the original shock-rocker, Alice Cooper, and a book about David Duchovny, star of "The X-Files" television show. The site includes a search engine so visitors can find a specific artist quickly or browse through certain genres of music. The site's menu is not restricted to artists from the Virgin record label. Visitors can also download a piece of software enabling them to listen to "Radio Free Virgin," which will feature 12 channels playing different genres of songs. Ward dismissed speculation that the move would steal customers away from traditional retail outlets, noting that Virgin also ran such stores. "This is a general global proposition and will leverage our bricks and mortar stores," Ward said. "We believe it will enhance overall market share." Virgin has nearly 200 "brick-and-mortar" megastores worldwide, with 19 in the United States. Ward said Virgin expected its online business to start generating a profit within five years, but declined to give details of sales projections. The site uses Microsoft Corp's <MSFT.O> Windows Media Player to allow the playing of streaming audio, and Ward said Virgin was interested in eventually offering songs for download over the Internet. ((Los Angeles newsroom, 213-380-2014))