Another more objective article from
today's WSJ (paid site)
I doubt whether they'll immediately go belly up, as margins are now supposedly positive--but goodby massive coupons and super-hot deals.
"Board member James B. Roszak has been named interim chief executive and another board member, Donald Kendall, former chief executive of PepsiCo Inc., has been named chairman.
Mr. Roszak said in an interview that Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Hill resigned due to a disagreement with the board about the company's direction, but he declined to elaborate. "The whole world looks at the e-retailing sector and says: It's about time companies like this make money," Mr. Roszak said. He said buy.com's board includes "Old Economy fundamentalists" who want to see the Internet company make an operating profit, as the company recently predicted it would do in the fourth quarter of 2001. "So, from my perspective, Mitch and Greg resigning was more one of pressure, not just from the board, but the investment community and shareholders demanding profitability much more quickly," Mr. Roszak said.
Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Hill didn't immediately return phone calls to their offices."....
"David Kathman, an analyst at Chicago stock and mutual-fund research firm Morningstar Inc., said the executives' resignations were "not a huge shock" given recent disclosures about the company's slowing growth rate. Mr. Kathman said sales have slowed at buy.com because its customers balked when the company raised prices on selected high-volume merchandise. He noted that buy.com initially discounted prices to draw customers to its Web site, which resulted in rapid sales growth, but recently had been selling products at less than cost. He said buy.com's gross margins have recently turned positive, "but they are still pretty thin.""
And my stock will be worth something again
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