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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

#41

Post by wlesieutre »

novia wrote: post #25
legitster wrote: post #23

Amazon's core business does not make sense. Despite being so massive, their retail operation makes almost no money. There is little market share left for them to win, the best they can do to grow is shave expenses. AWS has been their real money maker, but also the explosion of AI and server farms has worked against them in threes ways: there is much more competition on infrastructure, the costs to run infrastructure…

they could improve their product search page so it's actually useful

It's useful for making sellers pay for promoted product positions

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#43

Post by giancarlostoro »

malfist wrote: post #13
giancarlostoro wrote: post #4

Next time Amazon goes low I'm sure he'll buy it all back at a discount. With all his wealth he can get away with slow patient investing with swathes of cash.

Amazon just shed $450 billion in value. It's low right now.

Not sure if they can all of a sudden buy it right now, at some point that starts looking like market manipulation. Wait a few years or months, see a ton of companies tank, buy at a discount. We've seen them do this several times.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#44

Post by coredog64 »

legitster wrote: post #23

Amazon's core business does not make sense. Despite being so massive, their retail operation makes almost no money. There is little market share left for them to win, the best they can do to grow is shave expenses. AWS has been their real money maker, but also the explosion of AI and server farms has worked against them in threes ways: there is much more competition on infrastructure, the costs to run infrastructure…

> Despite being so massive, their retail operation makes almost no money

You misunderstand the point of retail. It's now a marketplace where they use their name recognition and (alleged) consumer friendliness to collect fees from sellers. It costs to list, it costs to do FBA, and it costs to run ads so that your products appear in search results. Amazon ads is incredibly profitable.

That's also why Prime has such a grab bag of benefits. By keeping Prime membership sticky, the overall value of that marketplace supports the fees charged to sellers.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#45

Post by legitster »

Aurornis wrote: post #31
legitster wrote: post #23

Amazon's core business does not make sense. Despite being so massive, their retail operation makes almost no money. There is little market share left for them to win, the best they can do to grow is shave expenses. AWS has been their real money maker, but also the explosion of AI and server farms has worked against them in threes ways: there is much more competition on infrastructure, the costs to run infrastructure…

> Amazon's core business does not make sense. Despite being so massive, their retail operation makes almost no money. Net profit margins for retail are only around 3% across the industry. Amazon isn't actually doing anything unusual in that regard. Retail is just a very low profit margin business whether it's physical or online. These numbers are always confusing to those of us in the tech world where SaaS net profit…

This is correct, but it doesn't explain why Amazon would have a 2x market cap over Walmart when they both roughly make the same revenue.

You have to believe that Amazon is poised for much higher growth than they are to justify their current stock price.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#46

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

phil21 wrote: post #36
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can buy most things directly from a trusted manufacturer or other websites. My experience over the last year has been the opposite. More and more of the specialized bits and pieces I need or want are only sold online via Amazon. Extremely depressing.

I don't share the Amazon hate everyone has, I've had very good experiences with Amazon retail. But I do sometimes try to spread out my purchases to other vendors due to monopoly concerns. It's amazing how many times you buy direct from a vendor and then it comes via Fulfilled by Amazon. The other issue is when anything goes wrong I've had a hell of a time with some vendors. It's a crapshoot - some vendors ship quickl…

> 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.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#49

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

malfist wrote: post #16
SilverElfin wrote: post #9

After Amazon has been a great friend to the Trump administration, by partnering with Flock, by funding the Melania documentary to basically bribe Trump, etc - why should Americans or others trust them or give them business? Amazon isn’t that interesting anymore. You can buy most things directly from a trusted manufacturer or other websites. I don’t see them doing anything innovative at all. What’s the last useful thi…

You can count the number of times Jassy has lead amazon to an innovative new product during his tenure as CEO on zero hands.

If you consider Amazon to be a retail company, then the comparison is with other retailers. When was the last time a retailer introduced an innovative new product? That's not what retailers do - they figure out where and how to sell , other people make the and it gets sold. The innovation happens to the , not the retail.

Obviously, there are long term trends like the acceptance of credit cards that took place between the late 1970s and late 1980s in the US. But retail isn't exactly known for being a hotbed of innovation.

If you are thinking about other aspects of Amazon (obviously, AWS), then ... I can't comment on that.

Re: Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

#50

Post by evanjacobs »

legitster wrote: post #23

Amazon's core business does not make sense. Despite being so massive, their retail operation makes almost no money. There is little market share left for them to win, the best they can do to grow is shave expenses. AWS has been their real money maker, but also the explosion of AI and server farms has worked against them in threes ways: there is much more competition on infrastructure, the costs to run infrastructure…

> There is little market share left for them to win

Despite controlling about 40% of US online retail, Amazon only has about an 8% share of total US retail. There’s still plenty of room to grow here.

https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-will-surpass-40-of-...

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