Slashdot Mirror
AOL Invests $100M In Amazon
jeffsenter writes "AOL is investing 100M USD in Amazon. CNET story. AOL and Amazon began partnering in 1997. AOL plans to integrate Amazon into its shopping channels further and Amazon will promote AOL as its exclusive ISP. The deal did not include purchases of advertising by Amazon from AOL as many such partnerships do." The money part I'm actually not that interested in - what I do think is interesting that given AOL's size and mass, the partnership of they and Amazon is going to be a pivotal one, complimenting each other very well.
I view this as a threat to the future of the Internet. sure, it seems benign now, but think about 20 years from now.. there will be so much bandwidth consumed by people mentioning the full name of the combined AOL empire, there won't be any left for the rest of us!
Despite the fact that some people here don't like AOL, this is good news... and here's why.
Amazon is a very high profile e-commerce site. People pay attention to what Amazon is doing... both technology people and business people. Amazon is perceived as a leader. And now that they're hooked up with AOL, the 'leader' will most certainly not become a Passport/Hailstorm site.
I've seen signs of an AOL/Netscape equivalent to that, actually. I'd be happy to see Amazon be part of that family. Not because I'd use it (I wouldn't), but because it would establish that Passport isn't the only game in town. Web sites could end up offering their users a choice of centralized authentication/payment services, much like you can walk into any store and pay with your choice of major credit cards today. Imagine: "We accept Microsoft Passport, AOL [whatever], GNU [whatever], or self pay..."
That's where I want to go today.
--
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Let's see... according to Yahoo, AOL posted a net loss of $2.10 BILLION for the last six months (up 8%), and Amazon posted a loss of $392 million. Between them, they've got about enough cash for another year or so.
Perhaps AOL was concerned that they weren't losing money fast enough, and needed some help from the world's #1 dot-bomber: Jeff Bezos.
"complimenting each other very well", indeed.
I fail to be impressed by either company - it really doesn't take much hard work, or brainpower, to lose this much money, although it does take a certain... panache to convince the masses to fork it over. For all of those anxiously fearing the worldwide domination of AOL, don't you fret - just wait a year or two, and watch the demise.
"But there's potential!" people say. Um, didn't we hear all about this a year or so ago? Look what happened...
(nope, I'm not a bitter investor, just an old-fashioned engineer who thinks wealth should be created, and earned. I've never owned a stock in my life, just for the record.)
Rather confused why Amazon would want AOL search technology too - it's search facilities are the best of the online book stores...
of course I knew I would make a mistake. surely, you jest, instead of surely, you just. :)
-2 penalty for me I guess.. doh.
BilldaCat
yes, i do realize that, but that's certainly no excuse to keep doing it today.
BilldaCat
what? an editorial error on slashdot? surely, you just.
.. of course, that's kinda like fantasy golf, whoever picks Tiger Woods wins...
hey.. with fantasy football season just around the corner, this has got me thinking.. how about fantasy slashdot?
All grammatical errors: 3 points
All spelling errors: 2 points
Forgetting to close the italic tag: 5 points
Smart-ass comments from the author in the story: 5 points
Using the l key to symbolize the number 1: 5 points
Improper abbreviations: 2 points
Bonuses:
Jon Katz posts an article of less than 3 paragraphs: 20 points
Your author actually comments in a story: 10 points
I'll take CmdrTaco
BilldaCat
18 months ago, when AMZN was over 100, this would have meant a tiny fraction of the company.
Now with the market cap under 6B, it means a whole lot more.
18 months ago, the same stake would have cost ~$700M!
That this will put the kibosh on Wal-Mart's plans of outdoing Amazon, or suing them if they can't outcompete them...
--
The real Webmaven is user ID 27463. I don't rate an imposter, because my ID is such a lame-ass high number.
The truth is that the CDs are the larval form of an alien species which inhabit AOL parasitically. When there is one in every home they will spontaneously mature and eliminate all humans. Fear the Day of The Great Hatching.
--
How about: "what I do think is interesting that, given AOL's size and mass, the partnership is going to be a pivotal one"
-1, dump it, bad grammar, edit and re-submit.
Sorry, I was just over at K5
Best Slashdot Co
Why does Amazon need an exclusive ISP? What does that mean anyway? It seems hardly likely that Amazon would reject book orders that didn't come in over AOL.
Just think - now AOHell has all the user data Amazon accumulated. The now know what you buy, when, and how much you are willing to pay. They know what you listen to, and what you read.
I just wonder if Amazon actually deleted my information when I cancelled my account with them.
Oh well, I could use some AOL CDs now - shingle your house with them and you lower your air conditioning bill immensely!
www.eFax.com are spammers
Pray tell, how is buying a stake in a company that is pegged to go under anti-competitive?
Wow, another $100 million for Amazon to flush away! Now I get to wait ANOTHER three months before FuckedCompany final lists Amazon as dead and gone, and investors finally realize that the days of the DotCom are really, really over.
- Online music
and Internet radio
- Partner with Bertelsmann AG, EMI, and RealNetworks for MusicNet
- A bunch of other usual suspect movie studios like Universal Pictures, who basically have to pay AOL-Time Warner for advertising airtime (although of course they're associated with Vivendi which probably means they have power all to their own)
- Books- AOL have $100 million in Amazon...
- Advertising- they're the US's second-largest advertiser, apparently.
- Truly awful television (Popstars 2 out this fall)
- Cisco, Swatch and Oxygen (marketing alliances)
- Magazine publishing (UK publisher IPC acquired for 1.1 billion UKP)
- EarthLink high-speed cable, Juno and High Speed Access on their broadband systems...
- The subscription video-on-demand market in Columbia, SC (with HBO)
- Grab the set-top box market with AOLTV/TiVo(TM)
- Oh, and a bunch of US magazines, obviously
- Your local supermarket (over 12,000 retail outlets have apparently signed distribution agreements to promote AOL... including Wal-Mart...)
- There's even an AOL mobile service...
- A strategic alliance with Sony for the PlayStation 2 (so you can use Instant Messenger, if it ever actually works)
- Chinese top computer maker Legend (joint venture)
- and a whole bunch of other stuff, including sponsoring Madonna's latest world tour...
But then, their financial report for the second quarter of '01 claims that they're intending to "expand agressively", and see themselves as "The world's first internet-powered media and communications company, whose industry-leading businesses include interactive services, cable systems, publishing, music, networks and filmed entertainment".Oh, apparently AOL 7.0 will offer a new level of convenience, ease of use and other marketdroid speak that will make the service "central to members' lives". Can't wait.
What, no Linux version? Darn. Looks like I'll have to after all.
Bezos: Why, thank you, AOL.
Case: Oh, thank you, Amazon.
Bezos: No, no, thank you, AOL.
Case: Oh I insist, thank you, Amazon.
Bezos: Please please, thank you AOL.
Case: Look, we gave you the money, so we get to give the thanks. thank you, Amazon.
Background:
Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO.
Steve Case, AOL CEO.
Compliment: An expression of praise, admiration, or congratulation.
Complement: Something that completes, makes up a whole, or brings to perfection.
-f
-f
www.blackant.net
Ummmm... No.
Exxon Mobil(largest company in the world, revenues of over $210 billion last year) has not bought BP(7th largest company in the world, revenues of almost $150 billion last year.
Perhaps you were thinking of BP's takeover of Amoco a few years ago (ok then, merger *cough*).
"There are bad people out there that will try to do bad things." - Microsoft 05/11/00
Anyway, it's only a joke, intended to be amusing before accurate. Also, it seemed a lot funnier at 4 AM when I posted it. ^_^
--
In spite of the suggestions and all the tests that I have made, I have not cavato a spider from the hole.
Just what America needs. Zibatsu.
--
In spite of the suggestions and all the tests that I have made, I have not cavato a spider from the hole.
Added to which, on HBO I get the bonus of actually getting nearly an hour of programming per hour of viewing, as there are no commercial breaks. I am definitely willing to pay for this.
Secondly, there was never any expectation that AOL would not show a loss within one year after one of the largest mergers in history.
TW ad revenues are up (when most other ad supported businesses are sucking), AOL has sewn up the consumer ISP market, and through partnerships continues to acquire vast swaths of the consumer landscape.
It doens't take a rocket scientist to figure out that over time this will translate into an incredible amount of control and obscene profit margins.
As for you "never owning a stock" - don't brag about that too much, even in days like this, stocks are still your best way to make money (yes kids, Priceline is up 400% in the last couple of months). Take on some risk man, you could get hit by a cement truck tomorrow.
Marketing Systems (as opposed to Operating Systems)
Marketing Systems are systems designed purely for marketing purposes, with operations being hardly even secondary considerations.
We have seen the gradual development of this type of thing with Microsoft. AOL and Amazon have the capabilities to really bring it to maturity.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Found on Amazon's Associates Program page... "Some of the most respected sites on the Internet are already Amazon.com Associates, including AOL.com"
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
Blarf.
(psst! don't let Amazon know!! :) LOLOLOL)
t _Books/etext97/memho10.txt
FREE BOOKS ONLINE! NO credit card required! No obligation!
RIGHT HERE!!1 Just click on a link on the left and be taken to the uncensored full texts!!!
Hurry! THey're going fast@ REmember: NO credit card required, it's FREE, no obligation!!1
Here's an excerpt!! (direct from link to full text!!1 http://www.ulib.org/webRoot/Books/_Gutenberg_Etex
Adventure VI
The Reigate Puzzle
It was some time before the health of my friend Mr.
Sherlock Holmes recovered from the strain caused by
his immense exertions in the spring of '87. The whole
question of the Netherland-Sumatra Company and of the
colossal schemes of Baron Maupertuis are too recent in
the minds of the public, and are too intimately
concerned with politics and finance to be fitting
subjects for this series of sketches. They led,
however, in an indirect fashion to a singular and
complex problem which gave my friend an opportunity of
demonstrating the value of a fresh weapon among the
many with which he waged his life-long battle against
crime.
On referring to my notes I see that it was upon the
14th of April that I received a telegram from Lyons
which informed me that Holmes was lying ill in the
Hotel Dulong. Within twenty-four hours I was in his
sick-room, and was relieved to find that there was
nothing formidable in his symptoms. Even his iron
constitution, however, had broken down under the
strain of an investigation which had extended over two
months, during which period he had never worked less
than fifteen hours a day, and had more than once, as
he assured me, kept to his task for five days at a
stretch. Even the triumphant issue of his labors
could not save him from reaction after so terrible an
exertion, and at a time when Europe was ringing with
his name and when his room was literally ankle-deep
with congratulatory telegrams I found him a prey to
the blackest depression. Even the knowledge that he
had succeeded where the police of three countries had
failed, and that he had outmanoeuvred at every point
the most accomplished swindler in Europe, was
insufficient to rouse him from his nervous
prostration.
Three days later we were back in Baker Street
together; but it was evident that my friend would be
much the better for a change, and the thought of a
week of spring time in the country was full of
attractions to me also. My old friend, Colonel
Hayter, who had come under my professional care in
Afghanistan, had now taken a house near Reigate in
Surrey, and had frequently asked me to come down to
him upon a visit. On the last occasion he had
remarked that if my friend would only come with me he
would be glad to extend his hospitality to him also.
A little diplomacy was needed, but when Holmes
understood that the establishment was a bachelor one,
and that he would be allowed the fullest freedom, he
fell in with my plans and a week after our return from
Lyons we were under the Colonel's roof. Hayter was a
fine old soldier who had seen much of the world, and
he soon found, as I had expected, that Holmes and he
had much in common.
On the evening of our arrival we were sitting in the
Colonel's gun-room after dinner, Holmes stretched upon
the sofa, while Hayter and I looked over his little
armory of Eastern weapons.
"By the way," said he suddenly, "I think I'll take one
of these pistols upstairs with me in case we have an
alarm."
"An alarm!" said I.
AOL = ACME
--
What ? Me, worry ?
So that should last Amazon about 2 months to pay for their losses ($168M for the last quarter).
We trade one evil for another. Netscape will save us from evil Microsoft, in turn becomes part of AOL who is now trying to out-evil even Microsoft.
//justice// can establish a pattern of behaviour, then label it anti-competitive, make them pay the Federal Government and States for daring to be uncompetitive, and tell the public how much safer they are... (even though prosecution is just a ruse to tax people via a third party)
It does seem that they want to lock down our connection, our content, and soon where we can shop.
So do they wait until Amazon goes bankrupt or is on the verge of it to buy them outright, or do they just pay Amazon enough money not to associate with MSN thereby depriving Microsoft of an ally?
I really wonder just how big the Feds are going to allow AOL/TW to get, and how many "special" contracts they will be permitted.
The common theorey is, let them get entrenched so we
So how much more can they get away with before some state or the Feds come a knocking?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
But such is life. Same goes for CNN, I think it has changed drastically and not for the better. It used to be a hefty site with lots of goodies and tons of links on teh main page. The 'new look' feels to AOLacized - simpler, lots of flashy color backgrounds, and MUCH fewer links to choose from. That and it seems like the news quality and quantity of news reports has decreased. Again - a shame.
So while this investment isn't AOL buying Amazon, if they ever do, I shudder to think what will happen as AOL 'simplifies' the look and feel of Amazon, reducing its usability that so many have come to enjoy
Top Most Bizarre/Disturbing Error Messages
Yeah, "pivotal..." So you've got Time Warner on content, AOL on internet, Time-Warner/Roadrunner on broadband, Amazon on sales. No monopolies here, no sir, just a little friendly synergy.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
Still, as long as we're on the topic, I'm one of those who wasn't too happy to see one of the tiny handful of huge content providers (from books to blockbusters) merging with THE huge ISP, and having the FCC ask a copule questiones about whether Time Warner would still sell cable access through other ISPs and what AOL was up to with instant messenger servicing (suing the phoneme IM into submission, among other things) and then saying, hey, go for it guys.
Once upon a time there was a theory that too much media power concentrated in the hands of a few was a BAD THING because the truth would take a back seat to the private interests of that small group of people. Some of the remedies for this were to limit how many media outlets a single entity can own and to separate the PRODUCTION of content from the DISTRIBUTION of content. Maybe "monopoly" is not the best word to throw around in this context but SOMETHING should be said when the single clearest example of the violation of this principle starts throwing money at (arguably) the most recognized vendor on the web.
One may justifiably ask, are these concerns legitimate? Is there evidence that the media is exercising undue influence? You tell me - I couldn't help but notice that when Congress passed the abhorent 1996 Telecommunications act, there was vanishingly little media converage of the widespread dissent to this legislation. The massive free giveaway of the digital television spectrum barely registered a blip on commercial TV news - although those of us who chose to watch that bad ol' liberal-bias public television got the scoop. One of those mealy-mouthed liberal politicians did take note of the situation, and gravely (and as it turned out, correctly) predicted that the mainstream news would fail to cover the issue. What was that guy's name again? Oh yeah - Bob Dole.
So what exactly is your beef, Zico? Just a stickler for terminology, or do you actually this kind of business is a GOOD thing?
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
I agree with this prognosis, since they both base their business on ripping off the less intelligent.
-CrackElf
"Blake is an idealist, Jenna. He cannot afford to think." - Kerr Avon, Star One, Blakes 7