Fertilemind.net Announces Investment Opinion on Beyond.com.

Business Editors

NOTE TO EDITORS: The following is an investment opinion issued

by Fertilemind.net

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 2000

Beyond.com Hacks Away: The Second In An Eventually Long Line Of

E-Tailers To Announce Layoffs

The Following is Market News dated

January 20, 2000 from fertilemind.net, located on the Web at

www.fertilemind.net.

Beyond.com gnawed off its own arm today, announcing that it is laying off 20% of its workforce. This followed a similar announcement by Value America last week. This one-two punch of failure is indicative of the brutal environment that e-tailers face. Investors should expect a dark parade of failures to follow Value America &Beyond.com because these companies have made four of the same mistakes:

1. Assuming that you can establish a trustful brand by merely

shoveling millions of dollars into a television-based advertising

campaign

2. Assuming that online shopping is an inherently more enjoyable

consumer experience

3. Assuming that there are barriers to entry if you are the first to

market

4. Assuming that online retail would have better margins because you

don't have to absorb the costs of retail real estate

Even after spending millions of dollars in the futile attempt to insert &uot;Beyond.com&uot; into the nation's consciousness, consumers still did not flock to purchase software at Beyond.com. Not only did the marketing effort fail, but it created a cost structure that outweighed any savings the company garnered by not owning retail real estate. &uot;It's as if they bought the most expensive real estate in the mall and the mall turned out to be in a corn field in Iowa,&uot; says, Aram Fuchs, CEO, fertilemind.net

&uot;We at fertilemind.net predict that there will be dozens more failures and thousands of layoffs in e-retailing. The business is simply a pathetic mix of intense competition, high costs and low barriers to entry. This is one parade that is going to look like the voyage of the damned,&uot; Fuchs concluded.

Under no circumstances should any information discussed in this article be considered financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell securities. Aram Fuchs is CEO of fertilemind.net and is also a limited partner in Spaide Partners, an investment partnership. At the time of publication Fuchs had no investment interest in Beyond.com. Fuchs frequently buys and sells securities that are the subject of his articles, both before and after publication. Fuchs' complete portfolio or any particular securities, including the specific securities discussed, may change at any time.

FertileMind.net analysts and members have written commentary on a variety of stocks such as: Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN), Excite @Home (NASDAQ: ATHM), America Online (NYSE: AOL), Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Lycos (NASDAQ: LCOS), CMG (NASDAQ: CMGI), Value America (NASDAQ: VUSA), Egghead.com (NASDAQ: EGGS), Commerce One (NASDAQ: CMRC), Go2Net, (NASDAQ: GNET), 3Com (NASDAQ: COMS), 4Kids Entertainment (NASDAQ: KIDE), Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN), CDNow (NASDAQ: CDNW), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Compaq Computer (NYSE: CPQ), Covad (NASDAQ: COVD), Dell Computers (NASDAQ: DELL), DoubleClick (NADAQ: DCLK), EBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), HotJobs.com (NASDAQ: HOTJ), Fogdog Sports (NASDAQ: FOGD) Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Inktomi (NASDAQ: INKT), Ivillage (NASDAQ: IVIL), Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT), MarketWatch (NASDAQ: MKTW), MCI WorldCom (NASDAQ: WCOM), NetZero (NASDAQ: NZRO), Preview Travel (NASDAQ: PTVL), StarMedia (NASDAQ: STRM)