Lots of people will write smart things about the retail giants strategy with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,the movie studio that it said it would buy for close to $11 billion. But I want to ask a more basic question:Why?
Amazon says it is buying the fabled US movie studio home for $US8.45 billion,while chief Jeff Bezos announces he will hand over the reins to new CEO Andy Jassy in July.
The highest bidder can come along:Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is auctioning off a trip on his space rocket.
A $US10 billion takeover of one of the world’s most illustrious film studios should silence those that doubt how serious Bezos is about competing. But does it make sense?
The world is enthralled with billionaires,almost shamelessly so. So when the uber-rich grew billions of dollars richer while the world locked down in the pandemic,hardly a peep of criticism rang out.
In the 15 years after Amazon.com went public,Bezos sold about a fifth of the online retailer for roughly $2.6 billion. The value of his stake has ballooned in recent years to such an extent that he can now sell relatively small amounts for billions of dollars.
Amazon.com reported its biggest profit ever as consumers turned to the online retailer for their shopping needs and businesses paid it more to warehouse and advertise their products.
The online retail giant plans to give more than 500,000 of its workers a raise as it seeks to attract new staff to handle the pandemic-fuelled surge in online orders and cut delivery times.
The space race between the world’s two richest men went into hyperdrive after Tesla chief Elon Musk took a swipe at Jeff Bezos’ attempt to challenge a major NASA contract.
Whether driven by megalomania,legacy-building,or purer motives,the world’s richest people are committing serious cash to one of humanity’s biggest challenges:tackling climate change.
Jeff Bezos has made a religion of putting the customer first at Amazon.com. Now,with a union vote behind him and the end of his reign as CEO nearing,he says it’s time to focus more on the welfare of the company’s workers as well.