Barnesandnoble.com Inc has announced results for the second quarter ended June 30 1999, its first quarter as a publicly traded company. The company posted a gross profit of $8.6m, up from $2.7m for the same period last year. It suffered a net loss of $22.0m, compared with $23.7m this time last year. Gross profit for the nine months cam to $15.9m, up from $4.7m this time last year. Net loss for the nine months was $42.2m, compared with $33.2m this time last year.
Barnesandnoble.com now has 2.2 million customers, about a fifth of rival Amazon.com’s claimed 10.7 million. Barnesandnoble says 60% of its orders are repeat business, but again, Amazon.com pips it with 70% repeat orders. Still, the company’s May IPO raised it $486m, and it’s now sitting on $623m in cash. In April, it added the bn.com URL to its online properties, and in July it launched a classical music store.
