Amazon offers free movies

Article Excerpt

AMAZON.COM $164.70 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 448.8 million; Market cap: $73.9 billion; No dividends paid) will now offer free streaming of movies and TV shows to its Amazon Prime members. These customers pay $79 a year to get unlimited two-day shipping. The company will offer Prime members more than 5,000 movies and TV shows. Netflix (New York symbol NFLX), Amazon’s rival in the Internet movie market, offers about 30,000 movies and TV shows for $96 a year. Amazon’s new service will reward Prime members. As well, it will draw attention to the company’s movie and TV-show downloading service, Amazon Instant Video, which lets customers buy or rent more than 90,000 commercial-free movies and TV shows (with prices of up to $3.99 for new releases). The company’s outlook is positive, and its expanding presence in streaming movies and TV shows adds to its prospects. However, Amazon trades at a high 49.9 times the $3.30 a share it…