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

To: stokaholic who wrote (1296)	5/21/1999 10:49:00 AM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1691

From Briefing.com: "This is not a charge that can simply be ignored. First of all,there would have been an amortization cost that would have impacted operating earnings if they had not taken the change. Previously, these costs, as stated in the quote from the press release above, would have been spread over four quarters instead of one. That means that about two cents of this charge normally would have appeared in this quarter's number. Second, this is a permanent change. It illuminates previous amortization charges, but will charge all costs now each quarter. Third, this is a legitimate operating cost. BKS now has to "charge costs as incurred." Sounds reasonable to Briefing.com. So, to ignore the charge entirely is wrong. It (to an uncertain degree) reflects true operating costs that will be in the numbers in the future as well." At the risk of beating this to death, I have two comments. First, the actual first quarter numbers and the analyst estimates probably included the normal amortization charge for the pre-opening costs. Assuming that the analysts did not factor the effects of the accounting change in their estimates, Briefing.com was wrong in not highlighting what is clearly a one time event. Secondly, going forward, BKS will be writing these expenses off as incurred, probably at the same level ($.02 per share) that they have been doing for God knows how long. This has been the proverbial tempest in a teapot.

To: stokaholic who wrote (1296)	5/21/1999 11:14:00 AM
From: .com	Respond to of 1691

Friday May 21 12:29 AM ET Ovitz gets bitten by the e-commerce bug By Margaret Kane, ZDNet Hollywood heavyweight Michael Ovitz is backing a new e-commerce company that will sell music, videos and games online. The new company, dubbed Checkout.com, will combine e-commerce with news, streaming audio and video, live events and personalized content, officials said. Ovitz, who served as president of the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS - news) after leaving the Hollywood agency firm Creative Artists Agency, is teaming up with Richard Wolpert, the former president of Disney Online. Wolpert is a partner in charge of Internet and technology ventures for The Yucaipa Companies, a private investment company. Yucaipa, the single largest shareholder in the Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR - news) grocery chain, recently acquired the Alliance Entertainment Corp., a distributor of music, videos, DVDs and games, and a developer of e-commerce databases. Alliance runs several Web sites, including the All-Music Guide, All Movie-Guide and All-Game Guide. A long list of luminaries Alliance's customers include Barnesandnoble.com (NYSE:BKS - news), Blockbuster , Musicland, and shopping.com (Nasdaq:IBUY - news). The company will serve as a distributor for Checkout.com, Wolpert said Wolpert said today that the company, which has also backed TalkCity Inc., an online community site, hopes to make even more investments in the Internet space. "My role at Yucaipa is to oversee a strategy to invest in the Internet," he said. "We're definitely interested in the space we're building up a portfolio." An all- encompassing shopping experience The new company will combine that Internet interest with Ovitz' Hollywood background., he said, Ovitz recently started his own management agency in Hollywood. "We all bring different skill sets. Ron [Burkle, Yucaipa managing partner] brings long-term retail and financing skill sets, I bring technology skill sets and Michael brings entertainment experience," he said. "He's going to be helping us out in a variety of ways which overlap with how we market the company as a whole, how we relate with Hollywood." As for how the new company will compete with the host of firms currently selling music, videos and games online, Wolpert said that Checkout.com would focus on "immersing" the user in "the whole experience." "It's not just a place to buy music or find out about a movie. It's all-inclusive , if you want to find pictures, find audio clips, find web sites anything and everything in the music, game or video space, it's here," he said. And once users get immersed in that experience, they will be less likely to go out bargain hunting, he said. The site will also feature technology designed to tailor itself to the user. "Every time you click on anything on a page you're building it. Every page is dynamically generated based on what you're clicking on," he said. "If you and I go on the same day and neither one of us is registered, by the time we're six clicks down we'll see different stuff."