Amazon head says avoid Internet shares

The head of online retailer Amazon

The head of online retailer Amazon.com has warned small investors not to put their hard-earned cash into Internet stocks, it emerged today.

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We are not a stock you can sleep well with at night
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Mr Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com.

Mr Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, tells BBC2's

Money Programme to be shown on Wednesday at 7.30 p.m., said: "We are not a stock you can sleep well with at night. We're a volatile stock. We're working hard on building a lasting company. And we think over time we'll build a very valuable company."

"But for a short term investor, or for a small investor, I wouldn't invest in Internet stocks," he said.

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Mr Bezos's comments feature in the programme's report, The Great Dot Con, which looks at the rise and fall of Internet shares and their subsequent contribution to the US economic downturn.

Seattle-based Amazon.com had been a darling of US analysts with shares surging to more than $100 dollars in December 1999.

But the group has since lost much of that value and on Friday it closed at around $12 dollars a share on the Nasdaq.

PA