posted 06-27-2000 11:52 AM         

quote:

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Originally posted by gatsby:
Amazon is so low right now (thirties) that it makes me wonder if it's time Walmart seriously considered buying it. Doesn't it make sense? The only drawback I could see is that many of Walmart's customers are still not online, but you can always set up call centers for them anyway. What does everyone think? If not Walmart, why not someone else?

Anyway, I know it's been said, but if Amazon isn't going to make it, what pure online etailing play will? The answer, of course, is none.

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posted 06-26-2000 09:43 AM         

here's the snippet:
"Interestingly, short-seller Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates told me he isn't as quite bearish as Suria, the Lehman analyst, regarding the timing of when Amazon could run out of cash. Suria says that "best case" is that Amazon's till will run dry by the end of the first quarter of 2001, which ends March 31. Chanos, however, leaves open the possibility that the markets or other factors could, for a time, work in Amazon's favor.

More pressing and lost in the shuffle of recent events, he says, is the fate of marketing relationships Amazon has entered into with upstart dot-coms. These deals typically have Amazon investing in the companies that turn around and buy space, which then gets reported by Amazon as advertising revenue. "These are investments that will require money," says Chanos, who is short Amazon. If Amazon can't raise money the question then, Chanos says, will be: "Will Amazon have to keep some of its partners on life support, thus draining its cash reserves?" '

quote:

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Originally posted by MaxPower:
Not just that, but there was some discussion on this board awhile back on Amazon as a venture capitalist. Amazon was able to mask their non-profits by investing heavily in other dot coms that gave them great returns (ie a cash infusion). But with many of those investments at rock-bottom levels, Amazon no longer has the ability to fill the cash tank.

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