Amazon.com, Inc.
FeedWalmart to Amazon: You're going down!
Bruce Watson
Nov 19th 2009 at 1:40PM
Filed under: Company News, Economy, People, Media, Wal-Mart Stores, Amazon.com, Inc.
The ongoing battle for internet bookselling heated up on Thursday. Walmart (WMT) CEO Raul Vasquez is trash-talking Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos (pictured), according to the New York Post: "If there's going to be a Walmart on the Web," Vasquez said, "it's going to be Walmart.com." Oooh -- it's on.
The comment is the latest salvo in this fall's highly publicized pricing war between the titans. In October, Walmart.com dropped the price of 10 bestselling books to $10. Amazon followed suit; Walmart countered with $9, and Amazon followed. Walmart downed the ante to $8.99, and Amazon backed off -- only to see Target.com match Walmart.com, which ducked down to $8.98. Vasquez sums up his company's pricing strategy: "If they react and match our prices, we're going to continue to lower our prices."
E-books go to college, but books still rule the campus, not Kindle
Sarah Weinman
Nov 19th 2009 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Technology, Amazon.com, Inc.
High school and college students are usually leagues ahead of their elders, technologically speaking. As they're dizzyingly texting and Tweeting and multitasking to their hearts' content, they're reading far fewer books than students of previous generations. No wonder some institutions are adopting drastic measures to stay on the cutting edge.To that end, Blyth Academy in Toronto is claiming to be the first school to wholly replace textbooks with e-readers. Blyth contracted with Sony to provide its Touch Edition device to all of its students. The school has a kindred spirit in Cushing Academy, an elite Massachusetts prep school that this fall threw out 144 years of tradition and replaced its entire library collection with all-digital offerings, including e-books. "When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books," headmaster James Tracy told The Boston Globe in September.
Retailers start holiday ads early, bet on frugal shoppers
Aimee Picchi
Nov 18th 2009 at 1:00PM
Filed under: Company News, Media, Sears Holdings Corp., Wal-Mart Stores, Costco Wholesale Corp., Amazon.com, Inc.
Does it seem like the holidays arrived early this year? Maybe you noticed Costco (COST) stocking up on wrapping paper in September, or holiday television ads blaring during the weeks leading up to Halloween. Well, it's not your imagination, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Retailers this year started their national television holiday ad campaigns as much as four weeks before the traditional start of the holiday season, the media researcher says. "Typically, retailer advertising is concentrated in the eight weeks before Christmas," said Jon Swallen, senior vice president of research at TNS. "What we saw was a backing up of the calendar by a full four weeks."
Microsoft brings WordPress onto its cloud: Automattic blogs will go Azure
Alex Salkever
Nov 18th 2009 at 9:00AM
Filed under: Technology, Google , Microsoft, Amazon.com, Inc.
At the Microsoft (MSFT) Professional Developers Conference on Tuesday, company CTO Ray Ozzie (pictured) took the stage to chat about his company's latest effort in cloud computing. Called WindowsAzure, this new Microsoft offering will allow companies to write code on a cloud-based operating system that runs in Microsoft data centers. After a year of testing, Azure is slated to go live in January, with paying customers coming aboard in February. Microsoft is playing catchup in the cloud realm. Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG) have both been running live cloud-computing offerings for over a year and have gained considerable traction with Internet companies and IT organizations seeking to avoid the limitations of physical servers, hardware maintenance and static bandwidth contracts. The big surprise that Ozzie unveiled, however, wasn't technological. It was actually a customer: Automattic, the hot software and blog hosting company that is behind the highly popular WordPress platform.
Massucci's Take: EBay's plan to be more retailer than auctioneer is one risky bid
Anthony Massucci
Nov 15th 2009 at 2:00PM
Filed under: Company News, Technology, Columns, People, Earnings, Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp., Amazon.com, Inc.
EBay (EBAY) is a Web pioneer, having built a multibillion dollar business out of allowing people to essentially put garage sales on the Internet. That simple idea led to fast growth more than a decade ago and helped define what was possible online for other companies that followed. The company's IPO in 1998 turned founder Pierre Omidyar and eBay President Jeffrey Skoll into instant billionaires.Fast-forward to 2009, and the 1990s Internet darling is steering through turbulence. EBay seems to be want to be more an online retailer and less an online auction site. If it makes such a move, if will have to fight online retailers such as Amazon.com (AMZN) and Zappos and their impeccable customer service. It will also have to take on formidable brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT), which are focusing more on online sales. Why does eBay want to join a battle it's not likely to win?
Amazon launches free Kindle software for PC
Douglas McIntyre
Nov 12th 2009 at 5:00AM
Filed under: Technology, Amazon.com, Inc.
There is a new product on the home page of Amazon.com (AMZN). PC users can now download a free version of Kindle software which allows Kindle users to synchronize the libraries on their Kindle e-readers with their PCs.
The move is a curious one for Amazon, which sells the Kindle for $259. Why give away any related software at all? Amazon has not said, but it is easy to guess.
Some consumer electronics research has shown that the Kindle and other e-readers are priced out of the market for many people. Much of the data from these surveys indicates that people may pay $50 or even $100 for an e-reader, but prices over $200 drive potential users away. Amazon may not be admitting it, but the company knows that the Kindle market is limited because of its price.
Sarah Palin's memoir: Why the math might not add up for HarperCollins
Sarah Weinman
Nov 10th 2009 at 8:00PM
Filed under: Media, Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp., Amazon.com, Inc., News Corp.
Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, is always a hot topic of conversation in the media. Her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, slated for release by News Corp.'s (NWS) HarperCollins next Tuesday, November 17, is no exception; it's been making news since the ink dried on the deal made last May. Going Rogue was one of 10 books selected for massive discounting by Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT), and Target (TGT) in their ongoing price war. Palin made headlines last month when she revealed that HarperCollins had paid her a $1.25 million "retainer" sometime between January 1 and July 26, the day she stepped down as Alaska governor. Oprah Winfrey has her booked on her show next Monday, which the author will follow with a bus tour to far-flung corners of the country (or as she famously called them during the 2008 campaign, "the real America"). No less than three books about Palin are slated for publication around the same time, including a parody called Going Rouge: An American Nightmare.
These 10 big-name stocks have doubled this year. Can they keep it up?
Douglas McIntyre
Nov 10th 2009 at 3:35PM
Filed under: Company News, Investing, Expedia, Ford Motor Co., Motorola, Nordstrom, salesforce.com, Apple, Amazon.com, Inc., Whole Foods, Office Depot, Tenet Healthcare
The S&P 500 index is so far having a fine year, up a bit more than 20%. But several big-company stocks in the index have doubled, or better, over that time. Among the best-performers are some of Amerca's most well-known companies.
Here's a look at 10 of those and their prospects of advancing further -- or sliding back into the large pack of equities that have had only modest advances during the current bull market (all prices are as of the close on Nov. 9).
Harlequin launches digital-only imprint. Will other big houses feel the romance?
Sarah Weinman
Nov 10th 2009 at 12:20PM
Filed under: Company News, Technology, Media, Time Warner, Amazon.com, Inc., News Corp.
For a publisher celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, Harlequin has been thinking ahead. Much of the voluminous catalog from the romance publisher is available for digital download in multiple formats, so fans of steamy novels can access all they want on their Kindles, iPhones, and netbooks at the ready, without worrying that particular titles will disappear from bookstores when the next month's titles arrive.Harlequin's longstanding policy of acquiring worldwide rights in all formats means it has the means to reach a global audience with whatever reading format they choose: print, digital, audio, or something that doesn't exist yet. So it seems like a no-brainer that Harlequin, a division of Toronto-based Torstar Corp. (TORSF), would launch an imprint devoted exclusively to digital books. But Carina Press, which will operate independently of Harlequin, might pave the way for major publishers to put their money where their e-book mouth is.
Daily Blogwatch: What happened the last time we hit 10% unemployment?
James Altucher
Nov 9th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Company News, Technology, Columns, Economy, Investing, Amazon.com, Inc.
_________________
Freakonomics is curious why flight attendants don't get tips.
_________________
Wow. Amazon (AMZN) is upgraded again. Here's why.
_________________
Walmart slams lid on customers' creepy online reviews of its caskets
Aimee Picchi
Nov 7th 2009 at 2:00PM
Filed under: Company News, Media, Wal-Mart Stores, Amazon.com, Inc.
The howling-wolf T-shirt phenomenon it is not. Walmart Stores (WMT) has closed the lid on customer reviews of its caskets. As DailyFinance reported this week, the retailer is selling 15 caskets, and more than 130 urns and cremains containers, through its website. As debatable as that business proposition might be, it proved a sure thing with at least one type of consumer: not the bereaved, but the wags who lurk behind high-speed Internet connections, waiting for an opportunity to heckle retailers with tongue-in-cheek reviews.
Walmart, Amazon, Target in DVD price war
AP
Nov 6th 2009 at 10:11AM
Filed under: Company News, Technology, Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp., Amazon.com, Inc.
The move led rivals Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Target Corp. (TGT) to reduce the prices of some online preorder DVDs, which pushed Wal-Mart to take a few more cents off its offerings.
Stocks in the news: AIG, Starbucks, Fannie Mae, General Electric
Melly Alazraki
Nov 6th 2009 at 8:55AM
Filed under: Company News, Investing, Crocs, Fannie Mae, General Electric , Macy's, American International Group, INC., Starbucks, Amazon.com, Inc.
Starbucks (SBUX), late Thursday, reported higher earnings, saying adjusted profit of 24 cents per share, beating the 21-cents-per share estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters mostly due to cost cutting measures. The coffee chain lifted its fiscal 2010 adjusted earnings guidance due to improving traffic in its stores. Shares jumped about 4 percent in premarket trade.
Walmart, Target, and Amazon drop book prices -- and distributors get spanked
Sarah Weinman
Nov 4th 2009 at 9:30AM
Filed under: Economy, Media, Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp., Amazon.com, Inc.
When a price war erupted last month among Amazon (AMZN), Wal-Mart (WMT), and Target (TGT) on select anticipated blockbuster books -- new titles by Sarah Palin, James Patterson, Stephen King, and Barbara Kingsolver -- it seemed like independent bookstores would be taking a beating. But the real victims may turn out not to be those mom-and-pop shops but their wholesalers and distributors.The big-box retailers have been playing a game of limbo this fall, pricing hardcover editions for as little as $8.98. It's textbook loss-leader economics, the theory being that pricing these few titles so low should entice customers to buy other products at full price.
Did Barnes & Noble steal a rival's design for the Nook e-reader?
Sarah Weinman
Nov 3rd 2009 at 11:30AM
Filed under: Technology, Amazon.com, Inc.
Barnes & Noble (BKS) last month introduced its e-book reader Nook (pictured), a competitor to Amazon (AMZN)'s Kindle, that it's slated to begin shipping around Thanksgiving. The Nook announcement overshadowed that of a competitor called Alex, from Spring Design, a little-known Silicon Valley company.When Spring Design announced Alex, tech site Engadget dismissed it as a "desperate" also-ran that, like Nook, features a combination six-inch e-ink screen and three-inch LCD screen, has Wi-Fi capability, and uses Google's Android as its operating system. But Spring Design says Nook, not Alex, is the copy-cat -- and it's suing Barnes & Noble for violating non-disclosure agreements and misappropriating trade secrets.
Why is Oprah going to cable? Hint: It's nothing to get teary about
Kisses from Hershey: Candymaker may court Cadbury with $17 billion bid
D-Day for Harry Reid: Can he wrangle 60 votes for Senate health reform bill?
