Amazon Site Shutdown Fails to Faze Investors

SAN FRANCISCO -- Yet another e-commerce titan suffered a breakdown today, this time it was Amazon.com (AMZN Quote).

Stamps.com No more standing in line at the Post Office for stamps? It's getting closer now that the U.S. Postal Service said on Wednesday that it would team with Stamps.com (STMP Quote)and E-Stamp to offer a computer-generated stamp. The news helped lift shares of Stamps.com 12 5/8, or 38.5%, at 45 3/8.

Bill Curry, director of public relations for Amazon.com, told TheStreet.com the site was down for 36 minutes, and the company had identified the source of the problem, but refused to disclose what it was. A notice on Amazon's site said that its books, music video, toys and electronics stores were temporarily closed. "We expect to be back soon," a note read, and users were able to leave their e-mail address if they wanted to be notified when the site was back up. TheStreet.com received such a notice at 3:58 p.m. EDT.

Amazon is down!

The problems come during a week when Amazon expanded its site with shopping areas for electronics and toys. And on Wednesday, the company said it had bought a 49% stake in Gear.com, an online seller of sporting goods at closeout prices. Nevertheless, Amazon.com was one of the bright spots in the Net sector today, and closed up 4 9/16, or 3.4%, at 139 9/16.

It is the latest in what have been a string of technical problems for a number of Internet sites of late, most notably eBay (EBAY Quote), which has had technical difficulties on three separate occasions in a little over a month, and E*Trade (EGRP Quote), which went down last week. Ironically, Amazon.com's auction site was not down.

There was good and bad to report on the earnings front. Both EarthLink Network (ELNK Quote) and Inktomi (INKT Quote) bested earnings estimates on Wednesday, but closed lower today as traders took profits after-the-fact. EarthLink closed down 3 7/8, or 6%, at 60 1/8, while Inktomi finished down 4 1/2, or 3.5%, at 124 3/8.

Net/Tech Indices INDEX CHANGE % VALUE TSC Internet 7.49 -1.1% 649.71 TSC E-Commerce 0.84 +0.7% 116.33 TSC E-Finance 21/32 -0.7% 89 3/8 Nasdaq 21.20 +0.8% 2839.30

After the close, CNET (CNET Quote) reported pro forma net income of 7 cents a share for its second quarter, 2 cents better than the First Call estimate of 5 cents a share. In advance of the report, CNET closed up 1 1/8, or 2%, at 51 7/8. Revenue were $25.6 million vs. $13.3 million in the second quarter of last year and $19.6 million in the first quarter of this year.

And shares of America Online (AOL Quote) were weaker on news that the stock was dropped from the top-10 holdings of some Fidelity Investments funds, including the flagship Magellan Fund. Fidelity doesn't say whether changes in its list are due to buying or selling, but reports said the move in AOL likely was due to selling. It finished down 2 1/16, or 1.7%, at 120 15/16.