e-Trouble

A Lehman Brothers report released yesterday noted that the debts and expenses of amazon.com have increased faster than its assets, and that its working capital fell nearly 50 percent from the first quarter to the fourth quarter of last year. According to the report, a 72 percent rise in liabilities for the Internet retailer has outpaced a 7 percent increase in assets.

But amazon.com is not the only Internet company mired in problems. CDNOW Inc., the online music retailer (a subsidiary of the Bertelsmann eCommerce Group), announced workforce cutbacks of 12 percent, laying off the 55 employees who sold banner ads for the company's web site. And eToys has announced that it will lay off its remaining workers and that it does not expect any investment income before it runs out of cash at the end of March. The company also said it expects its stock to be delisted from Nasdaq.