Amazon doesn’t really want to be a retailer some days, does it? Earlier this year the company had announced Amazon Web Services (AWS) such as the S3 storage and EC2 elastic computing (on demand) two services that should make any technology company proud. Now it’s trying for shades of Google with a new initiative to place pay-per-click ads.
The fact is, investors are never going to give these guys the kind of free rein as a place like Google, even if it has some of the most innovative web services around. Just last week Amazon’s stock leapt up after it said it would cut research spending. So what do you think, should Amazon offer its technology piece as a tracking stock?
Update: BusinessWeek has a sprawling cover story on Amazon’s web services strategy today.
9 comments so far
3:22 AM PT
time for googazon speculation to start.
3:40 AM PT
Androhair: It is stupid to think that one of the most important companies in the selling products online industry is willing to change its strategy and market just to gain more coverage, its like what Mercedez Benz tried once and failed, they sell luxury and comodity so why try to sell a cheaper car like the Class A, stick tou your strategy and let the others do their parts..Amazon keep selling products and invest in new technologies instead in waisting your time trying to have a little of everything.
http://www.androhair.com
11:57 AM PT
Tracking stocks are quite a big scam and target the unsophisticated investor - who might think that technology is really hot now - and I know the Amazon brand, so let me buy Amazon Technologies. Stock price is reflective of present value of future cash-flows as perceived by the market, and financial jugglery - unless it reduces cost of capital - is unlikely to make any difference.
Regarding ads on product pages, if these are not done right, they could end up hurting rather than helping Amazon’s revenues. Buyer distraction will likely lead to higher abandon rates. So Amazon should hope that click-thru’s generate more revenue than the loss of revenue due to buyer frustration.
1:04 PM PT
An important thing to note about Amazon is the senior tech staff is leaving in droves. The company is still hiring aggressively - even as the announcement points out spending on new R&D is decreasing. These 2 public facts point to a high rate of attrition.
The review of Amazon on coderific are also symptomatic and indicative of actually working there.
How can a company “innovate” from the top-down?
2:57 PM PT
Didn’t we all learn our lesson with tracking stocks a few years ago. If there is synergy to having this business in house, do a better job of explaining it to analysts. If there is no synergy, spin it off into a completely separate company. If you issue a tracking stock, you’re just proving your company has no vision.
3:24 PM PT
At this rate, they will be a better fit for Microsoft.
7:31 AM PT
Amayawn or Amazzzzawn
your way is just a rubbish pun!
;o)
6:41 PM PT
Richard MacaMannus has an interesting article on his blog about Amazons web OSS.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/amazon_webos.php
7:44 PM PT
It’s not experimentation. It’s the only way they get to scale in order to remain on of the truly big cos online.
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