Date: Fri 25-Jun-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Sotheby's-Amazon-online

Full Text:

Sotheby's And Amazon.com Alliance

NEW YORK CITY -- Sotheby's Holdings, Inc, (NYSE:BID) and Amazon.com, Inc,

(NASDAQ:AMZN), have announced that they will launch a joint online auction

site: sothebys.amazon.com.

This ten-year alliance between a leading e-commerce company and the

international art auction house, each founded -- 251 years apart -- as book

sellers, will offer online buying and selling of authenticated and guaranteed

auction property.

Announcement of the alliance comes nearly two months after Internet rival

Ebay's purchase of San Francisco-based auction house Butterfield &

Butterfield.

Hosted on www.amazon.com/auctions, the new site is expected to launch later

this year with an auction of items from the Halper Collection of baseball

memorabilia, a portion of which will be sold in a live auction at Sotheby's

newly renovated New York galleries in September.

The joint site will provide an opportunity for thousands of dealers in

collectibles and general art and antiques to participate in an Internet

marketplace. Sellers will have the opportunity to market to Amazon.com's more

than ten million customers with Sotheby's art and auction expertise.

"In the world of valuable objects, a big problem with online auctions has been

authenticity. Who better to help solve that problem than Sotheby's?" asked

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO, Amazon.com. "With Sotheby's reputation in

sourcing and authenticating art and valuable objects, and both companies'

relentless focus on the customer, we plan to make this the most popular online

auction site."

The site targets the general antiques collector and the area known as

"collectibles." It will feature coins, stamps, sports and Hollywood

memorabilia, fashion, animation art, toys, dolls and other collectibles, as

well as general art and antiques, books and jewelry.

All auction property will be offered by Sotheby's and a select network of

dealers and other art world professionals. The authenticity and condition of

all auctioned property will be guaranteed by the sellers.

"Amazon.com brings us the best online technology, the most superb customer

service and the largest number of e-commerce customers in the world," said

Diana D. Brooks, president and CEO of Sotheby's.

In addition to the joint site, Sotheby's will continue its www.sothebys.com

site, which will begin offering traditional fine and decorative art, jewelry

and books online this fall, and Amazon.com will continue its site.

More than 2,800 dealers from around the world have already signed up for

www.sothebys.com. They will now also be able to participate in the new joint

auction site. Combined, these three sites create the most comprehensive and

powerful Internet marketplace for art, antiques and collectibles. Collectors

will be able to access all three sites by clicking through

www.amazon.com/auctions, or through www.sothebys.com.

The two companies also announced that Amazon.com has agreed to purchase

(subject to customary closing conditions) one million shares of Sotheby's

Holdings Class "A" Common Stock at $35.44 per share, the June 14, 1999,

closing price. Amazon.com has also agreed to purchase, for a total price of

$10 million, three-year warrants to purchase an additional one million shares

at $100 per share. Amazon.com's total investment in Sotheby's is approximately

$45 million.

Sellers can receive further information by visiting the sites, or via phone at

212/606-7979, and in Europe at 44 171 293 6080.