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Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

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Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#121

Post by nikcub »

xvxvx wrote: post #2

Maybe the novelty of Amazon has worn off. I occasionally purchase from their UK site, and it’s filled with tricks to get me to sign up for Prime upon checkout. Really horrible workflow and design decisions, cheapening the experience. I now see similar changes to the US version: ‘you saved $15 in shipping by being a Prime member with this purchase’ and ‘last year you made 211 sustainable product purchases’. Guys, quit…

My peak number of orders p.a was in 2023: 215 orders

In 2025 it was 27 orders

I expect it to be even lower this year. I didn't even buy my eero router upgrade from Amazon.

I largely attribute this to poor quality products, horrible search interface, trying to sort through the dropship spam, and prices no longer being as competitive.

Amazon used to have decent-quality "amazon native" brands like Anker, Eufy, Eero etc. but there are better alternatives to buying all of these products now

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#122

Post by kristianp »

Looks like Berkeshire Hathaway is one way to invest in US shares ex-AI. Except for their smallish holding in Google, they now don't own the big AI spenders, whose shares have risen so much in the past year.

I guess they don't see value in Amazon shares any more. AI spend will probably hit their aws profits.

Note that the listing of shares they own doesn't include the companies that are subsidiaries. Like Geico and other insurance companies, BNSF Railway, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, etc.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#123

Post by homarp »

lysace wrote: post #76
xvxvx wrote: post #2

Maybe the novelty of Amazon has worn off. I occasionally purchase from their UK site, and it’s filled with tricks to get me to sign up for Prime upon checkout. Really horrible workflow and design decisions, cheapening the experience. I now see similar changes to the US version: ‘you saved $15 in shipping by being a Prime member with this purchase’ and ‘last year you made 211 sustainable product purchases’. Guys, quit…

I still like to buy my cheap and esoteric Chinese stuff from Amazon. It's a good balance of not-too-slow-delivery and not-too-expensive for very specific stuff. And it's easy to return if it doesn't work. Example last purchase: An optical SPDIF/TOSLINK to 3.5 mm DAC box (5V/USB-powered) to put behind the TV with a broken/very low quality audio output. It was about $15 including 25% VAT. Probably like $5 on Aliexpress…

In Europe, most of Aliexpress delivery is 10 days (except during Chinese New Year).

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#124

Post by pgwhalen »

MrDarcy wrote: post #85
pgwhalen wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They literally don’t have the cash to do it. I don’t understand this? Amazon is a profitable company, on the scale of tens of billions of dollars per quarter. They very literally do have the cash. Am I missing some subtlety in their financial reporting?

They have 86.8 B cash but are going to spend 200 B this year.

What is that spend compared against though? They already spend hundreds of billions of on various things in a year, but what is the marginal spend?

When you present these numbers alongside each other, you imply that they will go from making ~$20b/quarter to losing ~$30b/quarter, which is not plausible to me.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#125

Post by Nicook »

ilamont wrote: post #86

My view of Amazon's decline comes from being a "partner" in their seller and publisher ecosystems for years. The seller platforms in particular (Brand Registry, Vendor Central, Seller Central, Transparency, etc.) have crippling levels of technical debt. The situation has only gotten worse with Jassy's reckless directive for the entire organization to push into Generative AI ( https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-…

Oh god, was working within seller central when brand registry was being spun up. Id rather not relive some of those experiences (or use them).

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#126

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

tt24 wrote: post #112
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's hard to compete on Amazon for shipping costs. Not so much that it is hard, as that Amazon more or less forces vendors on its platforms to eat shipping costs.

Good, I want the platform to squeeze vendors as much as possible. This is how consumers win

We all wear multiple hats in our lives. Consumers. Citizens. Employees. Many more.

Amazon has been really good for us when we wear our consumer hats. Not so much when we wear the others.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#127

Post by Nicook »

rdtsc wrote: post #95
LeoPanthera wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A surprisingly large percentage of products on Amazon are now companies that sell only a small number of very specific things and have a name like KUFLPOW.

Yup, they are called Chinese-all-caps. Or that’s at least how I call them. Get bad reviews? Generate a new CAC name and start over. Rinse and repeat. Same product made by one factory in China sold by 100s of CAC Amazon entities.

The complete failure of the brand initiative cannot be overstated.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#128

Post by lysace »

homarp wrote: post #123
lysace wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still like to buy my cheap and esoteric Chinese stuff from Amazon. It's a good balance of not-too-slow-delivery and not-too-expensive for very specific stuff. And it's easy to return if it doesn't work. Example last purchase: An optical SPDIF/TOSLINK to 3.5 mm DAC box (5V/USB-powered) to put behind the TV with a broken/very low quality audio output. It was about $15 including 25% VAT. Probably like $5 on Aliexpress…

In Europe, most of Aliexpress delivery is 10 days (except during Chinese New Year).

I think that varies a lot by country/national post service?

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#129

Post by CoolestBeans »

Just to clarify because it seems like most of the comments aren't understanding. Berkshire sold the Amazon stock in the fourth quarter of last year meaning it is likely the last large move Warren Buffett is going to make as head of Berkshire as he stepped down on December 31 of 2025. That's why the article is titled that way and partly why its significant. Warren Buffett has traditionally been averse to tech stocks but picked up a slug of Amazon in 2019.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#130

Post by fshr »

genghisjahn wrote: post #97
wenc wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have two Alexas but never get ads. How is it that you’re getting ads?

The Alexa's with video screen will start to show ads no matter now many times you set it to no ads. There are settings for No Ads, and after a few days, that setting is reset to allow ads. I had one so I could quickly see my Blink camera, but I threw it away because it kept showing ads.

Did you actually throw it away or returned it?
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