Amazon In Cobranded Card Deal

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. and Internet credit card issuer NextCard Inc., San Francisco, are launching a cobranded credit card. Amazon.com will acquire a 9.9% stake in the issuer for $22 million.

Amazon will open its database of 13 million customers to NextCard, says Jeremy Lent, CEO of NextCard. The five-year cobrand partnership could result in approximately $150 million for Amazon if the deal meets undisclosed account-acquisition targets.

As part of the deal, NextCard will create and fund a loyalty program for the cobranded card, which it will begin marketing in early 2000. Marketing plans include e-mail and pop-up ad banners at the online point of purchase, along with a direct link from Amazon to cardholders' account information. NextCard has about 134,000 customer accounts, it says.