Will Amazon.com enter Poland via Merlin?

"The structural changes were necessary as Merlin's scale of operations has become so large that it requires solutions characteristic of large companies. We have to be prepared for further large growth of both sales and employment," stated Merlin's deputy president Krzysztof Jerzyk. Merlin was established by Prószyńki i S-ka publishing house, but it was taken over by two of Prószyński's co-owners Zbigniew Sykulski and Jacek Herman-Iżycki. At the end of last year a 25% stake in Merlin was acquired by one of the founders and shareholders of Onet portal Piotr Willam who refuses to reveal his plans concerning the company. According to market speculation, Merlin may become an acquisition target for American Amazon. "I spoke to a manager from Amazon who declared that they are about to enter the Polish market. In my opinion they will take a shortcut and take over a domestic company in order to acquire a market share at once," said an anonymous representative of one of the domestic e-commerce companies. Merlin generated revenues of zł.34.5 million in 2005 which is alm ost 10% more than in the previous year but nevertheless incurred a small loss. (Puls Biznesu, p. 6) E.B.