April 24, 2002

Online broker E*Trade acquires additional 7 percent of its Japanese subsidiary, E*Trade Japan, for $30.7 million to raise its stake to 36.1 percent; E*Trade Japan says its net profit fell 58 percent, to 415 million yen ($3.2 million), in fiscal year ended March 31 (S)

Article on apparent unraveling of Argentina governmentnoted

Amazon.com says sales in first quarter grew faster than expected and that its loss was less than expected; says sales were $847 million, up 21 percent, but company lost $23 million, down from loss of $217 million year ago; founder-chief executive Jeffrey P Bezos says company's series of price cuts were principal drive for its sales growth; graph (Market Place column) (M)

Enron Corp's former chief executive Jeffrey K Skilling tells investigators that top-flight financial returns that investors made from partnership LJM2 that did business with company could have been achieved only if corporation was defrauded; Skilling, in discussions with Securities and Exchange Commission earlier in year, said he never knew size of profits being generated by partnership; he indicated to SEC and to investigators for special committee of Enron board that such returns, which were as high as 2,500 percent in one transaction--could not have been achieved through arms-length transactions; when shown records that laid out details of financial returns during his testimony several months ago before SEC, Skilling was said to have grown agitated as he described his opinion of information; Skilling was said to have told regulators that had he known magnitude of profits he would have immediately summoned Enron executives involved in dealings and given them 24 hours to justify such outsize results (M)

Jill Abramson reviews book The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate by Robert A Caro; photos (M)