MY LETTER TO G&W

[amshih]

Naxon update -- a clip from today's news:


...[W]holesalers are hedging their bets with the Wineshopper arrangement. Wineshopper, formerly called Naxon, is developing a national database of wholesalers' wine inventory in exchange for the right to sell those products online. The company will operate within the three-tier system, funneling orders through existing distributors, according to CEO Peter Sisson, a 36-year-old former securities analyst who worked at Bell Labs. Sisson says he's raised $46 million in funding commitments from Kleiner Perkins and another investor he declines to name.

Wineshopper will offer small wineries national distribution when it launches sometime this year, according to Sisson. "We don't have any political agendas," he says. "There are plenty of wineries that want to get to market that wholesalers don't want to pick up. We can sell those wines."...


Folks, look at the contradiction in these two paragraphs -- on the one hand, Wineshopper will "funnel orders through existing distributors". On the other hand, Wineshopper can supposedly sell wines that wholesalers "don't want to pick up". Um, if the wholesalers don't want to pick up certain wines, then why would they want to help Wineshopper funnel them through?

[This message has been edited by amshih (edited 04-12-99).]