Amazon.com Introduces Initiatives to Help Make Christmas Wishes Come True for Needy Children Nationwide.SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 1999-- Leading online retailer Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN AMZN Amazon.com (NASDAQ symbol) ) today said that its charity toy drive has, so far, collected and delivered thousands of toys to needy children nationwide, and that has led a group of Amazon.com employees to commit to matching up to $1 million dollars in toy donations. The company also said it has begun an initiative that will enable major contributors to help grant Christmas wishes to needy children nationwide. Both the matching and major contribution initiatives launch on the Amazon.com Toy site today and are an expansion of the company's ongoing charity toy drive (www.amazon.com/toys). Currently, consumers who wish to participate by donating a toy through Amazon.com's charity drive can click on the charity icon to select a toy from one of four wish lists categorized cat·e·go·rize tr.v. cat·e·go·rized, cat·e·go·riz·ing, cat·e·go·riz·es To put into a category or categories; classify. cat by age. The toys selected go to either the Marine Corp Reserve's "Toys for Tots Toys For Tots is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve which donates toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas. The program was founded in 1947 by Major Bill Hendricks. " program or to NBC's The Today Show's toy drive for The Rainbow Rooms For the Los Angeles nightclub, see Rainbow Bar and Grill. The Rainbow Room is a well-known upscale restaurant and nightclub on the sixty-fifth floor of the GE Building in Rockefeller Center, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. of Texas. Toys in each age range were selected by both charities and have been discounted by Amazon.com by as much as 50 percent. Standard shipping is offered free as part of the charity toy drive. "The response to this program has been phenomenal. Thanks to the generosity of Amazon.com customers, thousands of needy children nationwide will have something to smile about this Christmas," said retired Major Bill Grein, vice president of marketing and development for the Marine's Toys for Tots Foundation. The program's success on the individual level spawned the launch of the matching and major contributor programs. Backed by a group of Amazon.com employees, the matching program will match dollar for dollar (up to $1 million dollars total for the entire drive) toy donations of $50 or more per donor. The major contributor initiative makes it easy for individuals and corporate donors who wish to play Santa in a large way to participate. Donors with contributions of $5,000 or more can share their contact information in a simple e-mail from Amazon.com's Toy site. A follow up phone call from an Amazon.com representative ensures that the donation provides toys for hundreds to thousands more needy children. About Toys for Tots The Toys for Tots program was created by the U.S. Marine Corps in 1947, in an effort to deliver a message of hope during the holiday season to children in need. In the past 51 years, Marines have collected and distributed over 243 million toys to more than 121 million children across the country. About NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. Today's Charity Toy Drive For the past five years, NBC's Today show has sponsored a charity toy drive with the goal of bringing happiness during the holidays to sick, homeless, and underprivileged children across the country. Today works with a number of charities in the U.S.; the toys donated through Amazon.com Toys will go to The Rainbow Rooms of Texas, an emergency resource center that distributes new clothing, toys, and other items to clients of Child Protective Services child protective services Sociology A state or county agency that addresses issues of child abuse and neglect . About Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon.com (Amazon.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries) is the Internet's No. 1 music, No. 1 DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. and video, and No. 1 book retailer. Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection with online auctions and free electronic greeting cards See e-card. . Amazon.com lists more than 18 million unique items in categories including books, CDs, toys, electronics, videos, DVDs, home improvement products, software, and video games See video game console. . Through Amazon.com zShops, any business or individual can sell virtually anything to Amazon.com's more than 13 million customers, and with Amazon.com Payments, any seller can accept credit card transactions, avoiding the hassles of offline payments. Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company where customers can find and discover anything they may want to buy online. Amazon.com's All Product Search scours scour, scours 1. the chemical and physical cleaning of fleece wool. 2. diarrhea. dietetic scour see dietary diarrhea. peat scour see secondary nutritional copper deficiency. the Web to help customers find merchandise that is not available at Amazon.com, Amazon.com Auctions, or Amazon.com zShops, making Amazon.com the shopping destination to find anything. Amazon.com operates two international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom and www.amazon.de in Germany. Amazon.com also operates PlanetAll (www.planetall.com), a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 150,000 movies and entertainment programs and 500,000 cast and crewmembers dating from the birth of film in 1892 to the present. Amazon.com also operates Amazon.com LiveBid Auctions (http://livebid.amazon.com), the leading provider of live-event auctions on the Internet. Amazon.com has invested in leading Internet retailers that are improving the lives of customers by making shopping easier and more convenient: drugstore.com, an online retail and information source for health, beauty, wellness, personal care and pharmacy, at www.drugstore.com; Pets.com, the online leader for pet products, expert information and services, at www.pets.com; HomeGrocer.com, the first fully integrated Internet grocery-shopping and home-delivery service, with operations in Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , at www.homegrocer.com; and Gear.com, which offers brand name sporting goods Noun 1. sporting goods - sports equipment sold as a commodity commodity, trade good, good - articles of commerce sports equipment - equipment needed to participate in a particular sport at prices from 20% to 90% off retail, at www.gear.com. Amazon.com also has a minority interest in Della & James, which brings together leading retailers with gift registry, expert advice, and personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. gift suggestions to help everyone give better gifts, at www.della.com. This announcement contains forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, consumer trends, competition, risk of distribution center expansion, risks related to fourth quarter, risks of system interruption, management of potential growth, risks related to auction and zShops services, risks related to fraud and Amazon.com Payments, and risks of new business areas, international expansion, business combinations, and strategic alliances. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. for the year ended December 31, 1998 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. for the quarters ended March 31, 1999, June 30, 1999 and September 30, 1999. |
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