Amazon Prime Amazon (or Scamazon?) News: "Work Hard. Have Fun. Make History."

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Amazon is reportedly in talks to purchase MGM Studios for an estimated Nine Billion dollars.


MGM is considered a 'Mini-Major' Film Producer and thus not one of the big Hollywood Studios (ie Disney, Warner Bros/New Line, Universal, Paramount and Sony) but still a large filmmaking company. MGM used to be considered a major studio before its bankruptcy troubles over a decade ago.

Current franchises/libraries it has control of include James Bond, Rocky, and the Barbershop and Legally Blonde film series. They also serve as a distributor for other filmmaking companies. It's believed this is largely being pursued by Amazon so they can expand the Amazon Prime Video Library.

And the deal is done!


Amazon buys MGM Studios for 8.45 billion dollars and so the Streaming Wars to make Streaming Television as shitty as Cable Television continues. This is Amazon's biggest acquisition since purchasing the Grocery Store retailer Whole Foods for 13.7 billion back in 2017. Amazon has spent over 11 billion on video and music content last year alone.

As a comparison, in 2012 Disney purchased Star Wars for $4 billion dollars.

Other media acquisitions that could be on the radar include LionsGate Studios which is valued at $3.5 billion and Viacom-CBS which is valued at 26 billion.
 

Abhishekm

Well-known member
I mean did anyone actually expect stream to not become like this when the profits came in? One reason cable was becoming shitty was the channels with increasing amounts if properties demanding their own special pricing.

This was kinda unavoidable when online hosted streaming became viable. When it was mostly downloading there was not much chance but in the age of the Cloud? Is it really a surprise studio's would start selling assets by the view as opposed to franchising it out?
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
I guess I missed this yesterday!


Congratulations on your 10 billion dollar handout Amazon for your Private Space Program! Still making bank even when dropping an almost nine billion dollar purchase!
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
The Indian Government is expeditating a probe into allegations of anti-competitive behavior from Amazon Inc, as well as the Wal-Mart owned Flipkart.

Reuters said:
In February, a Reuters investigation based on Amazon documents showed the e-tailer for years gave preferential treatment to a small group of sellers on its Indian platform. While arguing to restart the probe, the CCI told a court in Karnataka state that the Reuters report corroborated evidence.

Amazon, which has said it "does not give preferential treatment to any seller", told the court it disagreed with the Reuters report.

This is coming at the same time that both Twitter and Facebook are at odds with the government regarding data privacy and supposedly protectionist issues. Also it's believed that a similar probe of Google will be happening in the near future as well.

 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Also Amazon adjacent news I guess:

MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon Founder and until recently, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has just finished a third round of charitable giving since the divorce from her wealthy ex-Husband boosted her worth up to $36 billion dollars and made her the 21st wealthiest person in the world. Since then it grew to $52 billion largely thanks to the increase in Amazon stock price.

She recently donated $2.7 billion to 286 different charitable organizations. Before that she donated $4.15 billion dollars to about 384 different charities back in December of 2020 and prior to that she donated & 1.7 billion to various organizations as well, mostly serving as she says "underserved communities."

 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Amazon's deal to purchase MGM for over 8 billion dollars is now facing a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) probe.


The new FTC Chairwoman, Lina Khan, is pushing to take the lead on the antitrust review of this merger because their department already has an ongoing wide ranging antitrust investigation going on in regards to Amazon's business practices.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Amazons march towards Automation so it can depend less on its disposable wage slaves has collapsed in one areadue to the removal of over a hundred meatbag employees removed due to a chaotic work situation in it's UK based Amazon Air team. This effort, launched in 2016, was supposed to help launch Amazon's autonomous drone delivery system in the near future.

New York Post said:
The project was allegedly stymied starting in 2019 by a “near constant churn” of managers and employees, resulting in many people with little technical knowledge of drones or artificial intelligence being given positions of authority.

Several managers knew so little about their work that they couldn’t answer basic questions from the people they were supposed to supervise — and one employee was seen drinking beer at their desk in the morning, according to Wired.

This frequent turnover and chaotic environment pushed more experienced workers out like “rats off a [sinking] ship,” one ex-employee told the magazine.


Regardless both the FAA and equivalent UK agencies have only approved Amazon to engage in testing, not widespread commercial service with its intended autonomous drone delivery program.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Amazon is still looking for a way to dominate the world. Despite disappointing forays into bookstores, Amazon themed mall bodegas, Go Grocery Marts and their purchase of Whole Foods, Amazon is still wanting to dominate the brick and mortar "real time" retail business. But not just for complete market domination...

Gizmodo said:
But the company still lags behind its brick and mortar brethren when it comes to selling high-end fashion, or basic cosmetics and health goods—think toothpaste or bottles of shampoo. In June, reports emerged that the company was mulling plans to open its own Amazon-branded physical retail pharmacies, which would help the company crater competitors like Walmart or CVS that currently rule the world of retail-ized healthcare.

Amazon’s department store push would also help the company compete with two of its tech giant pals: Facebook and Google, which together dominate more than half of the multibillion-dollar digital ad ecosystem. Amazon ranks in a distant third place by earning 10% of that spend, but that number’s skyrocketing fast—and a lot of that boom boils down to data.

Amazon’s always collected data on its shoppers and sellers, but the past few years have seen the company make a serious push to woo advertisers away from platforms like Instagram and YouTube. And that woo worked because Amazon could offer what those platforms couldn’t: data about every purchase, every search, and every wishlist from every Amazon customer.

But that still left the company with a pretty large blind spot: data from real-world, in-store purchases. Meanwhile, those real-world retailers—including names like Target, Walmart, and CVS—have started launching ad networks of their own, offering data from the real-world purchases happening outside of Amazon’s sight.

An Amazon-branded department store would potentially bring those dollars back into Amazon’s pockets, and then some. Amazon’s past brick-and-mortar efforts have shown that the company isn’t afraid to collect as much data as possible from people who walk through its doors—even if that person doesn’t end up buying anything at all. Amazon knows the aisles you’re browsing, the items you’re picking up from a shelf, and whether your buys were influenced by an ad you saw on Amazon’s site. It knows how often you shop for groceries, whether you’re a vegetarian, and if you might be running low on eggs this week—which is great for Amazon and its advertiser partners, but a privacy nightmare for consumers that already have ample reason to be weirded out over Amazon’s data collecting practices.

All about harvesting even more data which at the very least can lead to more ad revenue and much, much more.

 

Urabrask Revealed

Let them go.
Founder
Thousands of internal documents allegedly show Amazon skewing search results to promote own brands in India despite public claims to the contrary.

Yeah, India is going to take steps about this. They really don't like foreigners interfering in their internal matters.
 

Abhishekm

Well-known member
Yeah, India is going to take steps about this. They really don't like foreigners interfering in their internal matters.
Walmarts are illegal. If that gives an idea about how serious India takes this stuff.

I am being literal with the illegal bit. Like we have less than 30 and they had to rebrand and restrict it to a membership service.
 

Cherico

Well-known member
Walmarts are illegal. If that gives an idea about how serious India takes this stuff.

I am being literal with the illegal bit. Like we have less than 30 and they had to rebrand and restrict it to a membership service.
Their time under the empire made them sensitive to such things
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
Their time under the empire made them sensitive to such things

The main law in play there is that single-brand retail stores cannot have more than 51% foreign direct investment unless at least 30% of goods are locally sourced, and multi-brand retail stores cannot have more than 51% FDI. The previous law was that multi-brand retail could not have *any* foreign direct investment, and remains highly controversial as it's one of the major things that the current Indian government is pushing against significant opposition.
 

Abhishekm

Well-known member
The main law in play there is that single-brand retail stores cannot have more than 51% foreign direct investment unless at least 30% of goods are locally sourced, and multi-brand retail stores cannot have more than 51% FDI. The previous law was that multi-brand retail could not have *any* foreign direct investment, and remains highly controversial as it's one of the major things that the current Indian government is pushing against significant opposition.
Eh, depends on your definition of controversial. They definerly lobby against it as do a lot of other internationals. Locals wise people kinda find then annoying or don't care for the most part. Walmart and similar that is not the law.
 
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Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Amazon is now a biggest shipper of parcels then even FedEx... and may soon be surpassing UPS as well! They now have a 21% market share, which is a big increase from the zero percent they had a few years ago and the shift in market share has had a noticeable affect on both FedEx and UPS especially but also the Postal Service as well.

 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos likely lied under oath regarding his denial that Amazon uses third party sellers data to better position their in-house brands in search results.

The Hill said:
A bipartisan group of five members of Congress sent a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Oct. 17 asking for “exculpatory evidence” to substantiate Bezos’ testimony.

The letter, signed by David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), was first reported by the Wall Street Journal Oct. 18.

The letter said the committee is considering referring Bezos to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution for perjury.

 

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos likely lied under oath regarding his denial that Amazon uses third party sellers data to better position their in-house brands in search results.
I'd honestly be curious if that doesn't extend to off-brands that pay them enough. I remember trying to find a DeWalt battery on Amazon once and being inundated with every knockoff product in existence before it would dare give me an actual DeWalt battery.

Amazon having a scummy business model promoting their own stuff at expense of any other producers wouldn't surprise me at all. Heck, at this point I'd practically expect them to be either bot-farming or shelling-out money for BS reviews of their stuff lauding how much better it is than [competitor].
Wal-Mart might legitimately be a more ethical company at this point. And that's a shitty standard.
 

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