Wired Amazon Sold Down the River
""Thank God I don't own Amazon!" portfolio manager Paul Meeks said Friday after a quick glance at the erstwhile Wall Street darling's sickening stock swoon. "

"And deservedly heartfelt after two of the company's biggest cheerleaders, analysts Mary Meeker and Henry Blodgett, suggested Amazon might not meet earnings forecasts. Their comments followed those of a Lehman Brother's analyst, who called the company's financial condition "more distressed than even mediocre real world retailers." Amazon's stock promptly plummeted 20 percent Friday to $33.88, its 52-week low. "

""When you get the company's two biggest cheerleaders pulling the plug, that is a problem," said Bill Fleckenstein, who heads Fleckenstein Capital in Seattle and has a short position on the stock. "My guess is that they got wind of something bad.""

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MSNBC Home is where the heart is for Bezos
"Amazon.com is in this jam because so far it hasn’t been able to make any money. Yet, in violation of what might properly be termed the First Rule of Holes (when you’re in one, stop digging), the company keeps pushing ahead with a business plan in which the more you sell, the more you lose"

"At some point, it all gets old and too familiar. Been there, done that, heard it all before. For more than half a decade now, Wall Street’s sell-side analysts have been talking up the Internet investment story to a willing audience of eager investors who thought that stocks went only one way: Up! Now those same investors are passing the same sell-side analysts on the way back down, and fewer of them are likely to be seduced a second time by the oldest pitch Wall Street has going: Give me your money today, and I’ll make you rich tomorrow."

The New York Times Tough Times for Online Drug Stores
[requires 'free' registration]
When the online drug store business was born last year, the first startup companies in the fledgling industry talked about reducing the hassles of shopping and saving consumers time and money.

They didn't talk much about profits."

"Caught off guard by the sudden change of investors' attitudes -- and with profits still years away -- the share prices of online pharmacies were punished. The two leading independent online pharmacies -- PlanetRx.com and Drugstore.com-- have seen their stocks plunge more than 80 percent this year."

"The move also led some industry observers to question the long-term viability of online pharmacies, particularly those not closely linked to a retail chain or rich parent company."

News.Com Net consolidation is a natural, accelerated business cycle
"Is the digital economy doomed?

Hardly. Although disruptive to employees and stock markets, the business of the Internet is simply experiencing the kind of natural consolidation that recast many other industrial landscapes, from automobiles to banking. But along the way, the so-called new economy is beginning to endure some difficult growing pains, felt more acutely than in previous cycles because of the Net's hyper-accelerated pace.

Unlike today, where an explosion of technology companies compete for venture capital, experts predict the Internet economy of 2005 will be a network of established businesses whose influence comes from and stretches around the world. And it will be full of old-world names that many investors have been ignoring--behemoths such as Procter & Gamble, Chevron, Coca-Cola and Boise Cascade.

"The Internet considerably shrinks the size of our universe," said Kenin Spivak, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Telemac, a private wireless technology company. "However, once past the euphoria, the business model for success is no different than any other industry.""

The Standard Pure-Play: A Losing Model?
"Almost two-thirds of Net retailers believe that they will not be profitable by the end of next year. Thirty-eight percent claim they won't see profitability until 2002. McKinsey & Co. and Salomon Smith Barney research analysts think they know why.

A recent study by the two firms, provided exclusively to The Standard, analyzes the business models of online retail pure-plays and offline retailers with e-commerce operations. The findings reveal that most offline businesses will find the Internet a profitable sales channel. However, few online retail pure-plays are expected to have long-term success without an offline partner or investor."