Bestselling Business Author Comments On Amazon.com's Future.Business & Hi-Tech Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2000 By Robert Spector, author of AMAZON.COM: Get Big Fast (HarperBusiness; April 2000) While its stock has been buffeted along with most of the other so-called "new economy" issues-it's down 50 percent from its 52-week high of $113--Amazon.com (1) (Computer Output Microfilm) Creating microfilm or microfiche from the computer. A COM machine receives print-image output from the computer either online or via tape or disk and creates a film image of each page. is unconcerned. Founder and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos (born January 12, 1964 , Albuquerque ) is the founder, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Amazon.com. Bezos, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University, worked as a financial analyst for D. E. Shaw & Co. anticipated such market gyrations; in fact, they were factored into his original strategy to "get big fast." The "get-big-fast" approach was simple: rapidly grow a franchise and create an enduring huge company that would emerge as the market leader. Once Amazon.com got its first $8 million in venture capital financing To start an own company or to bring a new product to the market, the venture may need to attract financial funding. There are several categories of financing possibilities. If it is a small venture, then perhaps the venture can rely on family funding, loans from friends in the spring of 1996, everything the company did--from advertising to building distribution centers to investing in other companies--was directed toward dominating its market. At Amazon.com's annual shareholder meeting last May, Bezos was asked by a shareholder: "When the Internet bubble See dot-com bubble. bursts, how do you see that affecting Amazon.com?" Bezos predicted that when that happened, Amazon.com would be impacted just like every other e-commerce stock, but added: "There are some things in a situation like that, that would be advantageous for us. For instance, acquisitions might be much cheaper to do for a company that had a large cash position, and we have $1.4 billion in cash [generated by debt], which is a lot more money in cash than most Internet companies have." Today, that cash amount is $3 billion Believing that Amazon.com's position translated into "strategic flexibility," Bezos told shareholders, "if the bottom drops out of the Internet market, there will be lots of high quality companies that could be purchased at low prices for cash. If it turns into a buyers' market, the companies with large cash positions are going to have huge advantages. Indeed, over the past year, Amazon.com has spent almost $400 million in cash and several hundred million in stock to either acquire or make significant investments in a wide variety of e-commerce companies, including HomeGrocer.com, drugstore.com, and Pets.com. Although the stocks of those companies are currently in the tank, Bezos continues to take the long-term view that those companies, like Amazon.com, will be dominant players in their markets. Bezos continues to believe that falling stock prices will ultimately benefit his company because, as he said recently, "Tightening of capital markets is good news for all the folks trying to build lasting companies, as opposed to the subset A group of commands or functions that do not include all the capabilities of the original specification. Software or hardware components designed for the subset will also work with the original. that are trying to build flash-in-the-pan stocks." As fringe or under-financed e-commerce sites fall by the way side, Amazon.com will become a bottom-feeder, swallowing swallowing or deglutition Act that moves food from the mouth to the stomach. The tongue pushes liquid or chewed food mixed with saliva into the pharynx. up all or parts of these virtual plankton plankton: see marine biology. plankton Marine and freshwater organisms that, because they are unable to move or are too small or too weak to swim against water currents, exist in a drifting, floating state. . Whether you believe Amazon.com is the future of commerce or you believe it's a house of cards house of cards n. pl. houses of cards A flimsy structure, arrangement, or situation that is in danger of collapsing or failing: "The collapse of the rupiah . . . about to fall, don't think Jeff Bezos has not factored in the possibility of every scenario, including falling stock prices. |
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