Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has taken a stake in Amazon (+3.24%), the investing demigod told CNBC. Important programming note: Buffett made it clear it wasn’t he who bought Amazon stock, but rather “one of the fellows in the office that manage money.” He has a name, Warren. And that name is likely Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, Buffett’s protégés at Berkshire. That Berkshire (or Todd or Ted) is investing in Amazon is significant. Buffett’s held a special place in his Coke-filled heart for Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos, but he never bought shares... "I’ve been an idiot for not buying," Buffett said this week. In 2018: "I had no idea that it had the potential. I blew it." And here’s an excerpt from an interview he did with us: Giphy So why now? Buffett (whose entire shtick is value investing) had shunned the move-fast-and-break-things tech sector for years. But then he greenlit a sizeable investment in Apple, a stake which has since grown to more than $40 billion. And now, Berkshire has put Buffett’s stamp of approval on Amazon, a company that only recently started thinking about profit. This could offer a glimpse into Berkshire once Buffett is gone (he’s 88 years old). Todd and Ted have gained influence in Berkshire’s day-to-day, earning Buffett’s praise for A+ investments like Apple and airline stocks. Buffett’s BFF Charlie Munger says they’re Berkshire’s “younger eyes.” Looking ahead: Investors will get even more insight into Berkshire’s future this weekend, when Buffett hosts his annual shareholder meeting in Omaha. We’re also counting on more color re: Berkshire’s recent Occidental Petroleum deal, its Amazon stance, and its massive cash pile. + While we’re in Omaha: We present you with Buffett Bingo, c/o the WSJ. Morning Brew

Amazon announced a free, ad-supported music streaming service to win more customers for its speakers and Alexa-enabled devices.

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The company said it will not be building a large headquarters in NYC as originally planned, adding the biggest twist of all to the marathon HQ2 search that began in 2017. Still unclear: Whether Amazon’s 30-day return policy applies to $2.5 billion corporate campuses. Why Bezos backed down “For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term.” “While polls show that 70% of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence...” Let’s talk about the (now overjoyed) opposition That Amazon (-1.06%), one of the largest public companies in the world, had been promised roughly $3 billion in government incentives didn’t sit too wellwith many activists and local leaders in NYC. They criticized the lack of transparency in the search process and highlighted the potentially disruptive effects the massive new campus would have on the local community. In the end, Amazon didn't want to fight this battle. This is a mess... ...for stakeholders (like prominent New York politicians and real estate professionals) eagerly anticipating the more than 25,000 high-paying jobs and $27.5 billion in tax revenue Amazon was expected to generate. ...and for Amazon, which thought it could bully any U.S. city into submission. Urban studies expert Richard Florida called it a “site selection disaster of epic proportions.” Looking ahead: Amazon said it’s going to double down on its new locations in Northern Virginia (the big one) and Nashville (the smaller one), while growing its other existing locations around the country. Zoom out: As Amazon became the target of an angry grassroots movement over the past year, fellow tech giants Google and Apple quietly announced their own (more modest) U.S. expansions to positive press. Amazon might want to take notes.

Just as your Medium manifesto was “gaining steam” with 21 claps, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stopped all your momentum with a very personal postaccusing AMI, the parent company of the National Enquirer, of extortion and blackmail. The backstory: Bezos and his wife MacKenzie recently announced plans for a high-profile divorce. The National Enquirer then published articles describing a relationship between Bezos and former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez. There were...juicy texts involved. Let’s walk through this next part step-by-step As described in Bezos’s blog post... He “engaged investigators” to determine the source of the leaks and the motivation behind the Enquirer’s actions. AMI’s Chief Content Officer sent an email saying that he obtained intimate photos of both Bezos and Sanchez (we’ll stop there...this is a PG newsletter after all). An offer was made: AMI wouldn’t release the photos if Bezos said publicly the leaks weren’t politically motivated. Bezos refused, published this blog, and here we are. Key Bezos quote: "Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here. If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?" If your head is spinning...we’ve got good news There’s more. Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, which has largely been critical of the Trump administration. David Pecker, the chairman and CEO of AMI, has a cozy relationship with the president, who himself has lashed out at Bezos once or five times. That perhaps helps explain the talk of “political” motivations. We can find no better bottom line than the NYT: “Mr. Bezos’ online post details a stunning and bizarre clash between the world’s richest man and the nation’s biggest tabloid publisher.” “In it, all of the country’s obsessions of recent years appear to have collided, from the personal lives of billionaires and sensational tabloid headlines to Mr. Trump’s fight with the media.” Via Morning Brew

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I heard on the radio that AWS will no longer be using Intel chips exclusively for its cloud services. This could end up being a BIG deal down the road.

After charming the crowd at its annual conference for cloud-lovers (any nephologists in the house?), Amazon (+6.09%) got some bullish reviews. One Jefferies analyst said its Amazon Web Services cloud business could be worth $350 billion by 2022.

Amazon (+0.01%) said Cyber Monday was its biggest shopping day ever in terms of the number of products sold globally.

(Vox).

Jeff Bezos first named the company as Cadabra, after the magic slogan “Abra-Cadabra”. When he first mentioned this to his lawyer over the phone, his lawyer misheard it as “Cadaver ???” . Bezos knew right then, that the name would not stick. Bezos had the customer-centric approach to the business, right from the start. So, he had proposed to change the name to “Relentless Inc”, a way of saying that the company would be relentless in its approach to customer satisfaction. In 1994, the company’s then de-facto CTO was Shel Kaphan. He was not very amused by the proposal. So, Bezos continued to look for options for the company name. In the 1990s, the number of websites were finite, and countable by humans. The websites were sorted alphabetically on the “internet directory” of those days. After a bunch of research, Bezos settled on Amazon Inc for two reasons - Amazon river has the largest collection of flora and fauna in the world. Amazon Inc will represent the largest collection of retail items on the internet Amazon-dot-com will appear in the first pages of the internet directory, making it easier to attract users and customers. Source

Some Amazon customers received an email from the company telling them their names and emails had been exposed due to a "technical error." Several customers shared the emails on social media Wednesday. Amazon said the problem was resolved, but did not provide clarity on how many users were affected nor for how long. In the email to affected customers, Amazon said it was unnecessary to reset passwords since it was "not a result of anything you have done."

It's reportedly lobbying brick-and-mortar retailers to start accepting its Amazon Pay digital wallet, per the WSJ. The move would expand a service that has primarily lived online into physical retail. Digital wallet, (n.)—An electronic account to which consumers upload credit/debit card information. Can be used for online payments and in brick-and-mortar retail using a phone's wireless connection at a tap-and-go terminal. Do a couple tap-and-go test runs at your local CVS before taking your talents to Target on Black Friday. We don't want any Brew readers getting verbally abused for holding up the line. Why get into digital wallets? After all, fewer than 1% of all U.S. card transactions last year used them. Well, Amazon's thinking the best time to get some skin in the game is when the competition is slim. And who's the competition? Mostly PayPal, Visa Checkout, and Apple Pay (which was accepted in-store at more than 5 million U.S. locations as of May), but the field's growing.

So many local and international requirements to start an SB. It is known is some countries that private sector makes agreements with government to get both benefits. In some countries companies pay government to keep the monopoly...where the only one affected is the consumer who has not more options.

This angers me. Small businesses are impeded at every turn while these huge businesses get grease FROM the government. Amazon would not even exist if it hadn't cheated the government out of sales taxes for decades... rrrrrrrrrr

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I wonder how Amazon Fresh works with Whole Foods now? Anyone know?