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To: Wayners who wrote (56235)	5/10/1999 1:57:00 PM
From: Mark Fowler	Respond to of 164684

Wayne its about time now if we can get a descent close today say above 140 it'll be looking damn good on Amzn.

To: Wayners who wrote (56235)	5/11/1999 8:08:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

FOCUS-Sportswear retailers sign on for e-commerce (Updates with quotes from Rubin, partners, stock down; pvs King of Prussia) By Steve James NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) - In a move to ward off the challenge from Internet-only companies selling sneakers, a group of sporting goods retailers joined forces Monday to back an electronic commerce company to run cyber sales for them. Global Sports Inc. <GSPT.O>, known as a marketer of surplus athletic shoes, said its Global Sports Interactive unit would operate online sites for such retailers as Athlete's Foot, Sport Chalet Inc.<SPCH.O>, MC Sports and Sports & Recreation, which have combined annual sales of $1.6 billion. More retailers are expected to sign up before GSI's Web services -- individualized for each company -- are up and running in time for next Christmas. GSI's retail partners will receive a revenue share of online merchandise sales generated from their Web sites and will not be required to make any investments in the development or operation of the Internet strategy. GSI will run and maintain each retailer's site. In anticipation of the move, Global Sports stock had doubled in price from $15 per share on April 29. It rose $7 last Friday alone, to close at $33.12. But on Monday, it fell over $12 to $20.62 in late trading. The stock traded at less than $6 last June, when it switched to a Nasdaq listing from bulletin-board status. Asked to comment on the slide, Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Rubin told Reuters he did not pay too much attention to the company's stock price. Like retailers in other fields, the lucrative sporting goods industry has been watching as Internet companies such as Amazon.com Inc.<AMZN.O> and Etoys Inc. <ETYS.O> seized the initiative in the book and toy industries over traditional retailers. Attempting to prevent a similar phenomenon in the sporting goods industry, Global Sports' Rubin said he approached some 18 major sportswear companies to offer to set up Web sites to sell merchandise. The idea of competing retailers using the same e-commerce company, was not easy to sell, he told Reuters by telephone. "Some were not thrilled, but at the end of the day, they need to be in e-commerce and it was a barrier we overcame." Rubin, who started his entrepreneurial career as a teenager selling skis out of his parents' Philadelphia home, said even the largest and best-operated sporting goods chains were not positioned to develop e-commerce business on their own, given the high cost of building the technology and organization. "The world has become enamored with the Web-centric model that requires enormous investments in brand building and customer acquisition," he said. "It is questionable as to whether these investments for many players will ever pay off, and I truly believe that our model, which builds partnerships with retailers that already have established brands and customers, makes the most long-term economic sense." Two of Global's new e-commerce partners said they were happy with the arrangement. "While categories such as books and financial services have been turned upside down by the infiltration of Internet start-ups," said Craig Levra, president of Sport Chalet, "the sporting goods category has yet to feel the full brunt of e-commerce and remains a wide open opportunity for companies like Sport Chalet. "We view our relationship with GSI as a means to aggressively pursue this opening while also helping to strengthen a model that will erect significant barriers for Internet-only companies to compete against." Athlete's Foot President and CEO Robert Corliss said: "The Internet is unknown territory. We look at the Internet as another means of staying in touch with our customer." The Internet site could produce store traffic by providing information to customers, who might be interested in seeing how a pair of shoes fit rather than buying online, he said. Havin...