Amazon’s ‘Bezos The Great’ Not Weeping Yet

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From Seeking Alpha:

In an “all-hands” in mid-November 2018, Amazon employees expressed concerns over two major topics. One was the bankruptcies of Sears and other retailers, and the other was the potential consequences of increased scrutiny from several governments in different parts of the world.

Along with the U.S., major economies like the EU and Japan have either launched an investigation, or are considering opening up investigations concerning potential antitrust violations. The EU has already initiated a probe of the use of merchant data by Amazon.

While the large size of Amazon does make them a political target because of how soundly they have trounced their competitors, from a traditional meaning of antitrust in the U.S., it would be hard to make a case against the company. It would even be harder to do so on the global level.

. . . .

[I]n reality [Amazon] only accounts for 9.8 percent of total retail sales in the U.S., and when including global retail sales, it doesn’t even reach 1 percent of overall sales, according to Jeff Wilke, Amazon’s CEO of the worldwide consumer division.

. . . .

As for its AWS cloud business, it has a market-leading 34 percent share in the U.S., but that’s far from monopoly territory that would trigger antitrust action. This is why merchant data and privacy are scrutinized more than its market share.

As for the performance of Amazon, Bezos noted that it “is not too big to fail. In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years.”

That’s actually an accurate statement he made. When you look at the Dow or S&P 500, many companies from the past no longer even exist. And that isn’t primarily from mergers, the majority of them disappeared as a result of bankruptcies.

He went on to say the longevity of the company will be determined by employees making an effort to “obsess over customers” and not to focus inwardly. “If we start to focus on ourselves, instead of focusing on our customers, that will be the beginning of the end. We have to try and delay that day for as long as possible.”

Link to the rest at Seeking Alpha

PG will note that market share is not the only factor in determining whether a company is violating/has violated the US antitrust laws, but it is a significant indicator.

2 thoughts on “Amazon’s ‘Bezos The Great’ Not Weeping Yet”

  1. “… have either launched an investigation, or are considering opening up investigations concerning potential antitrust violations.”

    So the rattling of sabers but they have yet to draw a sword. Funny that, as much as Trump hates how much Jeff is proving to be the better business man that none of Trump’s minions can find a single thing for the DoJ to go after Amazon on.

    As far as Amazon failing with Jeff in control? To him it’s still ‘day one’.

    MYMV and your plans/projects do as badly has Jeff’s have been doing to date. 😉

  2. It’s hard to see how Amazon could be considered a monopoly in any market. It doesn’t have the market share.

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