Details: Zappos gets 10million Amazon shares… equal to $807 million
Jeff Bezo’s Message to Zappos…
A letter from Tony, CEO of Zappos – http://blogs.zappos.com/ceoletter
Of note – it’s not “official” yet – just a definitive agreement…
We signed what’s known as the “definitive agreement” today, but we still need to go through the process of getting government approval, so we are anticipating that this transaction actually won’t officially close for at least a few months. We are legally required by the SEC to be in what’s known as a “quiet period”, so if you get any questions related to the transaction from anyone including customers, vendors, or the media, please let them know that we are in a quiet period mandated by law and have them email tree@zappos.com, which is a special email account that Alfred and I will be monitoring.
Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com) was on Charlie Rose last week talking about business, the economy, reinventing your business, the kindle, the future of reading, and much more. I love Jeff Bezos and I think he’s one of the greatest business minds around – and he’s awesome to hear speak.
Some notes:
- “Your value proposition to customers shows itself better to your customers in this economy”
- “If I look long term, I am very optimistic”
- “Me too companies tend not to do very well”
The quote I will take with me was…
“People often ask me – Jeff, what’s going to change in five to ten years? But I rarely get asked ‘What’s going to stay the same’? [...] If you base your business strategy on things that are going to change – then you have to constantly change your strategy. Whereas, if you formulate your strategy around customer needs – those tend to be stable in time.”
Brilliant. It’s so easy to get caught up with the changing landscape on the web, in business, etc – and it’s hard to focus on your core competencies. But in the end it always comes back to what your customer needs. [click to continue…]
Now that Bill Gates has retired my new “wish i was him” is Jeff Bezos. He was interviewed on my favorite radio show, On Point, yesterday where he discussed the future of reading, e-commerce, the economy, and the internet.
In the world of the Internet, Jeff Bezos is a giant. A pioneer. In the old days, they might have said a god.
He started Amazon.com when e-commerce was next to nothing and the web was still a whisper. Today, Bezos is a billionaire, Amazon is ubiquitous, and the web, well, it’s the way we live.
It hasn’t all been pretty. A lot of bookstores have been trampled. Amazon’s balance sheet was touch and go along the way.
But Bezos is still thinking big. From the way we read, to “cloud computing,” to humans in space.
“Bezos says he is “very serious” about the business; he says it is in some ways harder because there are so many participants. It has a glamor element, that attracts people; he says they are working on for-pay streaming service that will be unveiled in a few weeks; will start instantly, a la carte for pay”
“Bezos on the Roku/Netflix movie streaming box: My own guess is that separate boxes are an immediate step, and that streaming capabilities will be built directly into television sets.”
This is interesting to hear from Mr. Bezos. I knew they’d be offering a streaming service at some point but I thought it would be in association with Netflix. Apparently they will be doing this on their own. Hmm did someone I know call a la carte tv awhile ago? Ahh yes, it was me.
I also agree with his thoughts on the future of IPTV along with the current trend of set top boxes. Devices like the Roku player with Netflix streaming capabilities are an intermediary step (yes, I did order one) to televisions with built in streaming capabilities. I love HP’s tv(s) with a Media Center Extender (HP Media Smart TV) built right as well and see that as a possible avenue as it links the web to the tv with an extendable interface.
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