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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: trenzich who wrote (58790)	5/27/1999 7:43:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Laggard Web stocks: Could-have-been-a-contender.com? By Andrea Orr PALO ALTO, Calif., May 26 (Reuters) - You might call them "Could-have-been-a-contender.com" -- companies that emerged as early Internet leaders that have since fallen out of the spotlight. On one end of the Internet spectrum there is mighty Amazon.com, celebrated as much for its stock price as its popular online store. But then there is GourmetMarket.com, the cyber wine, cheese and chocolate shop, which trades over-the-counter with the other penny stocks. Even after some recent battering, Amazon <AMZN.O> stock is up more than tenfold in the past year at $116.50, while Gourmetmarket <WINE.OB>, sells for $1.44 a share, less than a quarter of its year-high level. When people talk about Internet stocks, they usually talk about winners like Amazon, the popular portal Yahoo Inc.<YHOO.O>, or the auction site eBay <EBAY.O>. But a growing number of Internet companies, that not too long ago were basking in promise, have fallen short of the most optimistic hopes. Many, like the electronic payment systems company Cybercash Inc.<CYCH.O>, have good technology that has caught on to a degree but has proved to be less than revolutionary. Others have good ideas -- like selling software over the Internet -- that sounded a whole lot better before countless competitors decided to try the same thing. Cybercash now trades around $13.125, down from its year-high of $24.875. Cyberian Outpost Inc.<COOL.O>, for instance, is one of a multitude of online retailers selling computer products, and many critics say it has failed to break out of the pack with a strong brand or a clear product offering. The company's stock is now selling at $11.25 a share, down from a high of $45.50. "Every single person and their mothers sell this stuff over the Internet," said one analyst who asked not to be identified. Most analysts interviewed did not want to go on the record, but several mentioned the same companies. Another company on most of their lists was CDNow Inc. <CDNW.O>, which emerged as an early leader in online music sales, but has had its market chipped away by everyone from Amazon to privately held Buy.com, whose whole business model is built around underpricing the competition. Add to those problems the fact that most of the competitors are diversified while CDNow is focused strictly on low-margin CDs, which is one of the most challenging sectors in retail. Trading at about $17.31 a share Wednesday afternoon, CDNow's stock has fallen by more than half from its year-high of $39.25. The drop is actually not as severe as the declines some Internet companies have sustained, but the consensus is that CDNow is no longer a contender for market leadership. Onsale Inc.<ONSL.O> emerged a couple of years ago as a pioneer in the Internet auction business selling everything from computers to plane tickets to the best bidder. But when people talk about online auctions, they don't talk about Onsale, anymore. The company eventually shifted from auction format to selling at fixed prices, and has tested many different price models to attract customers. Despite recently being named one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley, Onsale's new promotion of selling at cost and waiving transaction and shipping fees has left many to wonder where its profit margin will come from. The stock is now around $18, less than one-fifth its 52-week high of $108. Another auction site, Ubid Inc. <UBID.O>, emerged as a hot Internet issue late last year, but failed to build a following anything like that of eBay's. While many analysts say Ubid is holding its own in the face of severe competition, its stock has had a wild ride, and now sells around $35, down from a high for the year of $189. One of last year's hottest Internet IPO's is now also popping up on many analyst's lists of stocks that are no longer hot. Theglobe.com <TGLO.O> soared almost...