Amazon.com Inc, the online bookseller, last week filed for an Initial Public Offering that valued the fledgling company at around $300m (CI No 3,129): not bad considering it lost $5.8m net on revenues of just $15.7m last year. The Seattle-based firm is selling 2.5 million shares – about 10% of its stock – hoping to raise about $29.4m in the process. Some observers reckon Amazon has gone to market so early because of pressure from bookselling giants such as Barnes & Noble Inc, reacting to its heavily- discounted prices, and which also plans an online service, starting on America Online Inc. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Inc leads the offer.
