barnesandnoble.com Issues Statement Regarding Amazon's Statement About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

NEW YORK, NY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 6, 1998--The following is a statement by barnesandnoble.com

With regard to the acquisition of the Ingram Book Group, Barnes & Noble, Inc. is amused to read Jeff Bezos' quote, where he describes himself as an independent bookseller: "Goliath is always in range of a good slingshot."

Well, Mr. Bezos, what with a market capitalization of some $6 billion and more than four million customers, we suppose you know a Goliath when you see one. Your company is now worth more than Barnes & Noble, Borders, and all of the independent booksellers combined. Might we suggest that slingshots and pot shots should not be part of your arsenal.

About barnesandnoble.com

barnesandnoble.com offers customers more than four million books, featuring the largest selection of in-stock titles of any bookseller online, with over 650,000 titles in its distribution center and two million in-stock rare and out-of-print books through its partnership with Advanced Book Exchange. The site also has access to over 2.5 million additional titles from more than 50,000 publisher imprints. It was the first online bookseller to offer deep discounts, including up to 40 percent off hardcover books and up to 90 percent on its selection of thousands of bargain books.

barnesandnoble.com is the exclusive bookseller to America Online (AOL)'s more than 13 million subscribers (Keyword: bn) and has strategic partnerships with ten of the top twenty web sites, including ZDNet, CNN and Lycos. Through its affiliate network, barnesandnoble.com has established "remote storefronts," paying the highest commissions with the best reporting tools of any similar bookseller program in e-commerce.