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AOL Invests $100M In Amazon

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the getting-in-bed-together dept.

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.

2 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Name something AOL doesn't have a stake in... by kaiidth · · Score: 4
    AOL-Time Warner have interesting business habits... in the last couple of months, their assimilation's been looking like this:

    • 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.

  2. The future... by rneches · · Score: 4
    AOL Time Warner CNN General Motors Ford AT&T Glaxo Smithkline Beecham Amazon Sony Adobe ExxonMobile Texaco Chase Manhattan Hathaway Newport News Inc. (popularly known as Mega-Corp) has announced that it has declared that its rival, Microsoft Daimler Chrisler American Home Products Catapillar BP ABCDisney Barns and Noble Fox Viacom Novartis Boeing CitiGroup Lockheed ADM Sunoco John Deere Enron Apple Gerber A.G. (also known as The Conglomerate) is illegal. The bombing will begin in five minutes.

    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.