Cross Talk Connie Guglielmo, Operator No. 9
01/31/2000
Interactive Week from ZDWire

Talk About Creating A Market

How do you turn today's tchotchke into tomorrow's valuable collectible? Make it scarce, for one thing. That's the tack taken by Andale, a new Internet start-up that aims to help auction sellers quickly post multiple items for bid across the Web's popular auction sites. In honor of the company's Feb. 29 launch party, I was one of the lucky people to receive a limited-edition Matchbox car – emblazoned with Andale 's logo. "Limited-edition Matchbox cars increase significantly in value over time and are hot items on auction sites," Chief Executive Munjal Shah writes in the party invite. "The Matchbox enclosed may be a valuable collectible someday – only 1,000 have been made!" I like the strategy: Create the collectibles you want to help sellers sell using your service. So how much am I bid?

No Shortcuts To Success

AT&T's announcement last week that it will hand out pink slips to one-quarter of its brass force has some analysts wondering if Chief Executive C. Michael Armstrong's cuts aren't a bit too deep. The layoffs, part of AT&T's $2 billion cutback plan this year, are designed to help the company stay competitive, especially in its profit-dwindling long-distance unit. But how much slashing is too much? "Bottom line: Cuts are important when needed, but you can't cut your way to greatness. You have to grow your way there," says industry analyst Jeff Kagan.

Beyond Beyond.com

Despite an impressive pedigree – by Internet standards, anyway – former Amazon.com marketing guru Mark Breier was unable to work his magic at Beyond.com, the online software superstore that was hoping to go beyond just software. Breier, you may recall, appeared on national TV in his jockey shorts to promote the company. Though the news release announcing the end of Breier's 21-month tenure says Beyond.com "is restructuring the company in order to strengthen its focus on the more lucrative business-to-business market," a former employee tells me working there was like watching a three-ring circus, where the clowns were chosen for their connections, not their juggling abilities. "Mark brought in a bunch of his Stanford MBA buddies who didn't really know anything about what they were doing," my source says. "Running a high-profile Internet company is not just sitting around in a business lab with your buddies, talking the talk, hoping it will all come together."

Stranger Things Have Happened

My spies tell me the wired attendees over at the NATPE show in New Orleans last week were stewing over their bowls of gumbo trying to figure out whether the bright bulbs at General Electric were ever going to get around to selling that NBC television network they've been holding onto for too many years. Wacky Wall Street valuations could make for strange merger bedfellows once again if the selling chimes ring at NBC. One possible suitor for NBC: RealNetworks. Wouldn't that make RealNetworks Chief Executive Rob Glaser just as proud as a peacock? He's already a billionaire. If Steve Case can become Gerald Levin's boss, I guess the Web can make anything happen.

The Market Responds

The Andale Matchbox car reminded me – I haven't surfed the auction sites lately to see what bizarre items are to be found. I didn't have to look far. Right there on the eBay home page: a love potion. According to the description, the stuff is a "natural aphrodisiac" produced by most animals, birds and even some insects to attract suitable mates. "It attracts women like magic!" the seller proclaims. "Use Androstenone Pheromone Concentrate just like cologne and women will unconsciously detect the pheromone and become instantly attracted to you." Skeptical? At least 21 buyers had already bid $11.95 for the stuff. Only on the Web.