NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Dillard's Inc. shares rose 3.4% after two New York-based hedge funds reported a stake in the department store company, saying Dillard's shares are significantly undervalued.
Barington Capital Group and Clinton Group, which together accumulated a stake of over 5% in Dillard's, also sent a letter dated Tuesday to the Little Rock, Ark.-based company.
"If the company were more effectively managed it would be worth substantially more than its current stock price," the letter from the investment group said. "The vast value potential of the company is not being realized. Dillard's is an undervalued asset with tremendous opportunity for improvement."
The investment group proposed that Dillard's (DDS:
DDS19.78, +0.73, +3.8%) reduce its cost base, including better buying, tighten its assortment of offerings and vendors and update its private-label merchandise that will set it apart from its department store peers, the group said. Dillard's shares have declined by about 52% from June 30 through Jan. 25, compared with a 23% drop of the S&P Retail Index, as its monthly same-store sales growth rates declined 4.8% from July to December, the letter said.
'If the company were more effectively managed it would be worth substantially more than its current stock price.'
— Barington Capital Group and Clinton Group
"The disappointing financial performance of Dillard's must be addressed," the letter said. "While we acknowledge that the market conditions in the department store sector have been challenging over the past few quarters due to concerns with a weakening U.S. economy, the magnitude of Dillard's recent weak results cannot be attributed to the economy alone."
The letter also said Barington has tried to reach out to Dillard's board and Chief Executive William Dillard II several times during the past six months, though it said that hasn't been met with any response from the company.
Dillard's shares 64 cents to $19.69 in late afternoon trading.
Dillard's spokeswoman Julie Bull didn't immediately return a call for comment.
Andria Cheng is a MarketWatch reporter based in New York topic from :"http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/dillards-shares-rise-after-new/story.aspx?guid=%7B69904CEB-1B45-415F-A4C6-2CE57A59948C%7D "
Technology Takes to the Skies but Orbitz for Business Survey Reveals a Majority of Business Travelers Tune Out
Corporate traveler poll finds most business travelers don't want cell phones or need Wi-Fi while flying
January 24, 2008: 07:00 AM EST
CHICAGO, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Between PDAs, cell phones, laptop computers and Wi-Fi, it's nearly impossible for business travelers to be unreachable -- except, of course, when they're flying. While that may soon change as more airlines test Wi-Fi and other communication technologies, Orbitz For Business (http://www.orbitzforbusiness.com) found in its January survey that a majority (56 percent) of business travelers don't feel the need or desire to be connected at 30,000 feet.
When asked if they would take less convenient or more costly flights in order to have Wi-Fi service, 56 percent of business travelers said it is not a necessity, while 36 percent say they would try to get a flight with Wi-Fi available, but wouldn't be bothered if it weren't. The remaining eight percent feel wireless service is very important, and would take less convenient or more expensive flights in order to have access.
Wi-Fi service on airplanes is coming soon, however the issue of cell phone usage on commercial airlines faces numerous challenges and safety concerns from both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC). If never approved, it won't bother most travelers who cherish quiet time on planes, as 57 percent of business travelers surveyed oppose cell phone usage in-flight.
"Technological advances have made business travelers today more productive than ever before," said Dean Sivley, senior vice president, COO and general manager, Orbitz for Business. "While there are those who use flight time to catch up on work, and Wi-Fi will enhance that ability, there are also many who view it as valuable downtime. If ever endorsed, many travelers feel it would be hard to rest with the person next to them talking on a cell phone."
Courtesy is Common in the Business Community
Cell phones have become commonplace for business travelers almost everywhere else, including stores, restaurants, sidewalks and public transportation. Though there are individuals who at times appear oblivious to their surroundings, 84 percent of business travelers surveyed say they try to be as quiet as possible when on a call, and are bothered by those who don't do likewise. Only four percent of those surveyed openly admit they will do whatever they need to while working and traveling, regardless of how it affects others. Twelve percent of respondents say they try to use travel time to relax and take their mind off of work rather than talk on the phone.
Why-fi?
With in-flight Wi-Fi expected to be available soon, the inevitable question is whether business travelers will actually use it for business or pleasure. The Orbitz for Business survey found 59 percent of business travelers say they would use the service equally for both business and pleasure, while 21 percent claim they would use it solely for business. Twenty percent of travelers responded that it would be used exclusively for pleasure.
The Orbitz for Business Corporate Traveler Survey was conducted online using a MarketTools panel of 640 adults ages 18-65 who have traveled for business this year. MarketTools is a market research firm that directly manages a nationally-representative online panel of more than 2.5 million individuals, with a global network extending to more than eight million consumers worldwide.
About Orbitz for Business
Orbitz for Business (http://www.orbitzforbusiness.com) is the corporate travel brand of Orbitz Worldwide. Orbitz for Business serves over 2,000 corporate customers and more than a million business travelers. Launched in 2002, Orbitz for Business was one of the first full-service managed business travel programs offered by an online agency. Orbitz for Business includes a portfolio of business travel products for small to large companies. Its products include self-managed services for small business, managed travel services with fulfillment and service support and international capabilities.
About Orbitz Worldwide
Orbitz Worldwide is a leading global online travel company that uses innovative technology to enable leisure and business travelers to research, plan and book a broad range of travel products. Orbitz Worldwide owns and operates a portfolio of consumer brands that includes Orbitz (http://www.orbitz.com), CheapTickets (http://www.cheaptickets.com), ebookers (http://www.ebookers.com), HotelClub (http://www.hotelclub.com), RatesToGo (http://www.ratestogo.com), the Away Network (http://www.away.com) and corporate travel brand Orbitz for Business (http://www.orbitzforbusiness.com). For more information, visit the Orbitz Worldwide Investor Relations website at http://www.orbitz-ir.com.
topic from :"http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQTH01124012008-1.htm "
Comcast also has a variety network known as CN8, or the Comcast Network, available exclusively to Comcast and Cablevision subscribers. The channel shows news, sports, and entertainment and places emphasis in Philadelphia, New England, and the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. areas, though the channel is also available in New York, Pittsburgh, and Richmond. In August 2004, Comcast started a channel called CET (Comcast Entertainment Television). It is only available to Colorado Comcast subscribers. It focuses on Life in Colorado. It also carries some NHL & NBA Games when Altitude Sports & Entertainment is carrying the NBA or NHL. In January 2006, CET became the primary channel for Colorado's Emergency Alert System in the Denver Metro Area.
The UK division was sold to NTL in 1998. After the sale of their cellular division to SBC Communications of San Antonio and the acquisition of Greater Philadelphia Cablevision in 1999, Comcast and MediaOne announced a $60 billion merger which did not occur until three years later (as AT&T Broadband).
On January 3, 2005, Comcast announced that it would become the anchor tenant in a new skyscraper in downtown Philadelphia, to be named the Comcast Center, not to be confused with the Maryland arena mentioned above. The 975 ft skyscraper, while still under construction, has topped off and is officially the tallest building in Pennsylvania.
Presently, Comcast serves a total of 24.2 million cable customers, 14.7 million digital cable customers, 12.9 million high-speed internet customers, and 4.1 million voice customers. The company employs over 90,000 people. Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also has corporate offices in Houston, Detroit, and Denver.
Acquisitions
Comcast bought 25% of Group W Cable in 1986, doubling their size. Two years later, they bought a 50% share in Storer Communications, Inc. They bought the American Cellular Network Corporation the same year before combining with Metrophone in 1990. Comcast became the third largest cable operator in 1994 following their purchase of Maclean-Hunter's American division. Comcast owned the majority of the electronic retailer QVC from 1995-2004 when its share was sold to Liberty Media. Following other acquisitions, Microsoft invested $1 billion in Comcast in 1997.
In 2001, Comcast announced they would acquire the assets of the largest cable television operator at the time, AT&T Broadband (AT&T's spun-off cable TV service) for $44.5 Billion USD. In 2002, Comcast acquired all assets of AT&T Broadband, thus making Comcast the largest cable television company in the United States with over 22 million subscribers. This also spurred the start of Comcast Advertising Sales (using AT&T's groundwork) which would later be renamed Comcast Spotlight. As part of this acquisition, Comcast also acquired the National Digital Television Center in Centennial, CO as a wholly-owned subsidiary, which is today known as the Comcast Media Center.
Proposed merger name logo, 2001
When it was first announced that AT&T Broadband and Comcast were going to merge, the chosen name for the new company was "AT&T Comcast". That decision was changed so as to not confuse current and future investors in the company, and the merged company retained the Comcast name.
On February 11, 2004, Comcast surprised the media industry by announcing an unsolicited $66 billion bid for The Walt Disney Company, a deal that would have made Comcast the largest media conglomerate in the world. After rejection by Disney and uncertain response from investors, the bid was abandoned in April. It was later discovered that the deal was mostly for Comcast to acquire one of Disney's most profitable operations, ESPN, in an attempt to expand its sports reach. Comcast has since opted to expand OLN's sports coverage with the Tour de France and the NHL, and in the process renaming the network in the United States Versus. Comcast's NHL deal also obligated them to launch a U.S. version of NHL Network by the summer of 2007. The network finally launched in October 2007.[citation needed]
Comcast announced on March 25, 2004 that their new gaming-oriented television network G4 (operated by subsidiary G4 Media, Inc.) would acquire Vulcan Venture's technology-oriented television network TechTV. The deal was finalized on May 10, 2004 - and the two networks became G4techTV on May 28, 2004. On January 11, 2005, Comcast announced that it would drop TechTV from the station's name and again be known as "G4".
On October 31, 2005, Comcast officially announced that it had acquired Susquehanna Communications (SusCom,) a York, PA-based cable television and broadband services provider and unit of the former Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff company, for a net cash investment of approximately $540 million. In this deal Comcast acquired approximately 230,000 basic cable customers, 71,000 digital cable customers, and 86,000 high-speed Internet customers. Comcast previously owned approximately 30 percent of Susquehanna Communications.
On April 3, 2007, Comcast announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire the cable systems owned and operated by Patriot Media, a privately-held company owned by cable veteran Steven J. Simmons, Spectrum Equity Investors and Spire Capital, that serves approximately 81,000 video subscribers. Comcast will acquire Patriot for a net cash investment of approximately $483 million.[4] By acquiring the niche provider the deal will plug a hole in its central New Jersey service.[5]
Adelphia purchase
In April 2005 Comcast and Time Warner announced plans to buy Adelphia Cable. $17.6 billion was to be paid (partly in stock) in the deal that was finalized in the second quarter of 2006 — after the FCC completed a seven-month investigation without raising an objection. Time Warner would become the second largest cable provider in the U.S., ranking behind Comcast. As part of the same deal, Time Warner and Comcast would also trade existing subscribers to create larger clusters of customers for each company in various geographical areas.[citation needed]
The changes became effective on August 1, 2006. As an example, Comcast's systems in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex were traded to TWC in exchange for Time Warner's North Louisiana market, which covers Shreveport and Monroe. Also, Comcast in Los Angeles Area was traded with TWC.
Also in August 2006, Comcast and Time Warner dissolved a partnership that controlled the systems in the Houston, Southwest Texas, San Antonio, and Kansas City markets. After the dissolution, Comcast obtained the Houston system, and Time Warner retained the others.[6] On January 1, 2007, Comcast officially took control of the Houston system, but continued to operate under the Time Warner Cable brand in the interim. As of June 19, 2007, the Time Warner name was officially retired and replaced by Comcast.
In early 2007, Comcast took over Adelphia operations in Palm Beach County, Florida and Bartow, Pickens, Cherokee, and Forsyth Counties in Georgia.[7]
thePlatform purchase
In July 2006, Comcast purchased the Seattle-based software company thePlatform. This represented an entry into a new line of business - selling software to allow companies to manage their Internet (and IP-based) media publishing efforts. Customers of thePlatform include Verizon Wireless, Scripps, CourtTV, Amp'd Mobile, ABC7 Chicago News, and CNBC.[citation needed] thePlatform will also provide media access for Hulu, the joint venture by NBC Universal and News Corporation providing on-demand, ad-supported television programming owned by NBC, Universal Studios, and Fox.
Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States, offers downstream speeds of up to 4, 6, 8, or 17.6 Mbit/s and upstream speeds of 384 kbit/s (48 kB/s), or 768 kbit/s (96 kB/s) for the 8 Mbit/s downstream package, for standard home connections. In some areas, they are offering 16 Mbit/s downstream and 1 or 2 Mbit/s (125 kB/s) upstream as a more expensive, yet speedier alternative. These differing speed options are made possible by loading a particular configuration file into the modem. Comcast's "PowerBoost" technology delivers bursts of 12 to 16 Mbit/s downstream and 1 to 2 Mbit/s upstream for the first 10 MB of the download with their 6 and 8 Mbit/s packages, respectively.[citation needed] According to the Comcast High Speed Internet terms of service, customers are provided with dynamic IP addresses.[10]
Comcast has a policy of terminating broadband customers who use "excessive bandwidth," a term the company refuses to define in its terms of service, which say only that a customer's use should not "represent (in the sole judgment of Comcast) an overly large burden on the network."[10] Company responses to press inquiries suggest a limit of several hundred gigabytes per month.[11][12] In September 2007, Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas said the company defines "excessive use" as the equivalent of 30,000 songs, 250,000 pictures or 13 million emails in a month.[13] Other company statements have said the limit varies from month to month, depending on the capacity of specific cable nodes, and that it affects only the top 1 percent of high-speed internet customers.
Controversies
Reputation for poor customer satisfaction
There have been many reported incidents with individual customers describing less than satisfying interactions with Comcast's customer services. These include situations with technicians falling asleep on the job, customers having to spend hours on the phone to fix simple problems, and sending a bill addressed to "Bitch Dog" to a customer who had recently complained about her service. On October 15, 2007, a 75-year old Comcast customer named Mona Shaw entered her local Comcast offices with a hammer and destroyed some office equipment before being arrested and fined for damages. Mrs. Shaw was angry and frustrated due to a previous encounter with Comcast customer service in which she and her husband wanted to speak with the manager and were forced to wait outside the offices for two hours before being informed that the manager had already gone home.[17][18] Comcast's customer service quality has prompted several individuals to create blogs and websites dedicated to informing the public of Comcast's service, including media columnist Bob Garfield's website, ComcastMustDie.com.[19]
In 2004 and 2007, the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey found that Comcast had the worst customer satisfaction rating of any company or government agency in the country, including the Internal Revenue Service.[20] Comcast's Customer Service Rating by the ACSI surveys indicate that the company's customer service has not improved since the surveys began in 2001. Analysis of the surveys states that "Comcast is one of the lowest scoring companies in ACSI. As its customer satisfaction eroded by 7% over the past year, revenue increased by 12%." The ACSI analysis also addresses this contradiction, stating that "Such pricing power usually comes with some level of monopoly protection and most cable companies have little competition at the local level. This also means that a cable company can do well financially even though its customers are not particularly satisfied." [21][22]
Deliberate poor connection quality
Comcast has recently implemented traffic shaping measures using Sandvine hardware which sends forged RST packets, disrupting the BitTorrent protocol. This has prevented some Comcast users from uploading, or "seeding" files they have downloaded via BitTorrent.[23] Some Comcast users also may experience packet loss and latency, resulting in lag. This effect is most often noticed when dealing with time critical traffic in online gaming, and especially pronounced when such users host online games on ad-hoc networks (such as in Halo 3).
Sports
After the Montreal Exposbaseball team relocated to Washington, D.C. to become the Washington Nationals in 2004, Comcast alienated many fans in the area by refusing to add the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), which airs the team's games, to its channel lineup. In July 2006, as a condition of its approval of Comcast's takeover of a portion of Adelphia's assets, the FCC ordered Comcast to enter into binding arbitration with MASN to settle their dispute. As a result, on August 4, 2006, it was announced that Comcast would carry MASN programming starting in September 2006.[25]
In the Philadelphia region, Comcast uses the FCC's "terrestrial loophole" to avoid negotiations with satellite television services for delivery of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, which is transmitted via a microwave broadcasting system instead of satellite (as its predecessor, PRISM, was a local-only service). This essentially denies competition in the Philadelphia market for games of the Philadelphia Phillies (baseball), Philadelphia 76ers (basketball), and Philadelphia Flyers (hockey). Comcast does, however, supply Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia programming to Verizon for their competing FiOS video service, even though FiOS is not available to residents of the city of Philadelphia.[citation needed] A smaller controversy arose when Comcast and Cox Communications announced that their systems in Connecticut (outside of Comcast's systems in New Haven, Danbury, and the Northwest Corner — all areas considered to have a sizable number of Mets fans) would not be adding SNY in 2006, if ever, for varying reasons not fully explained. This came to the anger of Mets fans who would need to switch to satellite to watch games due to all of the state being in the Mets' designated territory (thus, games would not be available through MLB Extra Innings, and most ESPN telecasts would be blacked-out). Comcast's purchase of Adelphia's systems in the state and Cox's skeptical eye towards RSN carriage in regards to fan loyalties (also done with YES and NESN in the past) also could be factors.
Comcast has not as yet agreed to carry the new Big Ten Network that started broadcasting at the start of the 2007-08 college football season. Under the Big Ten's current television agreement ABC/ESPN has the right to choose which Big Ten conference game to air. Big Ten football games not aired on the regular ABC/ESPN feeds have in recent years been syndicated to local television stations and presented as "ESPN Plus" games. The new Big Ten Network will now have the second choice for conference games. The Big Ten Network is currently being carried via satellite on DirecTV and was recently added to Dish Network as well. The network will also televise each team's basketball games 15-20 times.
Blocking Internet access
On August 17, 2007, TorrentFreak reported that Comcast has been preventing bittorrent users from seeding files.In October 2007, the Associated Press confirmed the story that indicates that Comcast "actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally."[27] In November 2007, Comcast's severe limiting of torrent applications was again confirmed by a study conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in which public domain literature is distributed over peer-to-peer networks. Analysis of the EFF study finds "strong evidence that Comcast is using packet-forging to disrupt peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing on their network".[28] The studies show that Comcast effectively prevents distribution of files over peer-to-peer networks by sending a RST packet under the guise of the end user, and denying the connection, which effectively blocks the user from seeding over BitTorrent. Legal controversy arises because instead of simple filtering, Comcast is sending RST packets to Comcast customers, pretending to be the host user at the other end of the Bit Torrent connection.[29] Comcast's BitTorrent throttling was revealed to be through a partnership with Sandvine, although Comcast's internal memos instruct employees to respond to the contrary.[30][31]
Now there is also evidence of Comcast using RST packets on groupware applications that have nothing to do with file sharing. Kevin Kanarski, who works as a Lotus Notes messaging engineer, noticed some strange behavior with Lotus Notes dropping emails when hooked up to a Comcast connection and has managed to verify that Comcast's reset packets are the culprit.[32] A lawsuit, Hart v. Comcast, has been filed accusing Comcast of false advertising and other unfair trade practices for allegedly advertising unlimited high-speed internet access while in reality working to restrict their customers' usage of the internet.
In 2007, Comcast customers reported a sporadic inability to use Google because forged RST packets are interfering with HTTP access to google.com,[33] which has further angered users. [34]
In January of 2008, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin stated that the FCC is going to investigate complaints that Comcast "actively interferes with Internet traffic as its subscribers try to share files online".[35]
Lobbying efforts
Comcast spends millions of dollars annually on government relationships.[36][37] Regularly Comcast employs the spouses, sons and daughters of influential mayors, councilmen, commissioners, and other officials to assure its continued preferred market allocations.
Comcast strongly lobbies against "a la carte" bills that would give consumers the option to purchase individual channels rather than a broad tier of programming. These issues continue to garner attention from state governments, Congress and FCC Chairman Martin.[42]
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is an Americane-commerce company based in Seattle, Washington. It was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet and was one of the iconic stocks of the late 1990s dot-com bubble. After the bubble burst, Amazon faced skepticism about its business model, but it made its first annual profit in 2003.
Amazon was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bezos refers to as his "regret minimization framework," i.e. his effort to fend off late-in-life regret for not staking a claim in the Internet gold rush.[1] It is common lore that Bezos wrote its business plan while he and his wife drove a 1988 Chevrolet Blazer from Fort Worth, Texas to Bellevue, Washington[2], although this story is largely apocryphal according to early employees of the company.[original research?]
The company began operating as an online bookstore under the name Cadabra.com (as in abracadabra), a name that Bezos quickly abandoned due to its sounding like "cadaver".[2] While the largest brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could offer many times more. Bezos renamed his company "Amazon" after the world's most voluminous river.
Amazon's initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect to turn a profit for four to five years. In retrospect, the strategy was effective. Amazon grew at a steady pace in the late 1990s while many other Internet companies grew at a blindingly fast pace.
Amazon's "slow" growth caused a number of its stockholders to complain, saying that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the Dot-com bubble burst and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2002: a meager US$5 million, just 1¢ per share, on revenues of over US$1 billion, but it was important symbolically.
The firm has since remained profitable: net income was US$35.3 million in 2003, US$588.5 million in 2004, US$359 million in 2005, and US$190 million in 2006 (including a US$662 million charge on R&D in 2006). Nevertheless, the firm's cumulative profits remain negative. As of September 2007, the accumulated deficit stood at US$1.58 billion.
Revenue continued to grow thanks to product diversification and international presence: US$3.9 billion in 2002, US$5.3 billion in 2003, US$6.9 billion in 2004, US$8.5 billion in 2005, and US$10.7 billion in 2006. On November 21, 2005, Amazon entered the S&P 500 index, replacing AT&T after it merged with SBC Communications.
The Web sites of Borders (borders.com, borders.co.uk), Waldenbooks (waldenbooks.com), Virgin Megastores (virginmega.com), CDNOW (cdnow.com), and HMV (hmv.com) are powered and hosted by Amazon. Until June 30, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com into a browser would similarly bring up Amazon.com's Toys & Games tab; however, this relationship was terminated as the result of a lawsuit.[4]
Amazon.com powers and operates retail web sites for Target, the NBA, Sears Canada, Sears UK, Benefit Cosmetics, Bebe Stores, Timex Corporation, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, Lacoste and Bombay Company (now defunct). For a growing number of enterprise clients, currently including the UK merchants Marks & Spencer and Mothercare, Amazon provides a unified multichannel platform from whence a customer can interchangeably interact with the retail website, standalone in-store terminals, and phone-based customer service agents.
It also powers AOL's Shop@AOL service via Web Services technology.
Locations
Headquarters
Amazon.com's headquarters in PacMed building (Beacon Hill, Seattle)
Amazon has announced plans to move its headquarters to the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle beginning in mid-2010, with full occupancy by 2011. This move will consolidate all Seattle employees onto the new 11-building campus.
Software development centers
The company employs software developers in modest- to large-sized centers across the globe. International locations include:
The company launched Amazon.com Auctions, its own Web auctions service, in March 1999. However it failed to chip away at industry pioneer eBay's juggernaut growth. Amazon Auctions was followed by the launch of a fixed-price marketplace business called zShops in September 1999, and a failed Sotheby's/Amazon partnership called sothebys.amazon.com in November. Although zShops failed to live up to its expectations, it laid the groundwork for the hugely successful Amazon Marketplace service launched in 2001 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Amazon Marketplace's main rival today is eBay's Half.com service.
Beginning August 2005[5], Amazon began selling products under its own private label, "Pinzon"; the initial trademark applications suggested the company intended to focus on textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods.[5] In March 2007, the company applied to expand the trademark to cover a larger and more diverse list of goods, and to register a new design consisting of the "word PINZON in stylized letters with a notched letter O whose space appears at the "one o'clock" position."[6]. The list of products registered for coverage by the trademark grew to include items such as paints, carpets, wallpaper, hair accessories, clothing, footwear, headgear, cleaning products, and jewelry.[6]
In August 2007, Amazon announced Amazon Fresh, a grocery service offering perishable and nonperishable foods. Customers can pick up orders or have them delivered to their homes. Delivery was initially restricted to residents of Mercer Island, Washington, a wealthy suburb of Seattle.[9] Pickup locations were later added in the suburbs of Bellevue and Kirkland, and delivery coverage was expanded to several ZIP codes in Seattle.
Website
A popular feature of Amazon is the ability for users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. As part of their review, users must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Such rating scales provide a basic idea of the popularity and dependability of a product.
The review feature is an important and highly influential function for customers and one of the main reasons for amazon.com’s success at selling books. As with book reviews anywhere, the buyer must beware that all reviewers have bias. Under normal circumstances, reviews give the reader at least a modest basis for evaluating a given book.
Because it is an open forum, the reader can benefit from a variety of perspectives. However, the anonymity of web reviewers increases the chances of abuse in the form of self-praise, praise from friends, or malicious criticism. This situation was confirmed in 2004 when the origin of reviews was accidentally made public on an amazon site, and some authors openly confirmed their glowing reviews of their own books.
Amazon provides an optional badging option for reviewers, e.g., to indicate the “real name” of the reviewer (based on a credit card) or to indicate that the reviewer is one of the “top” (most popular) reviewers. Some books have well over one thousand reviews (e.g. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged), but many books, especially new ones, have none.
The U.S. site generally has the most reviews, but other country sites offer the perspectives of other reviewers. A review posted on one site is not necessarily visible on another site.
Search Inside the Book is a feature which allows customers to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the catalog.[10][11] The feature started with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23, 2003. There are currently about 250,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130 publishers to allow users to perform these searches.
To avoid copyright violations, Amazon.com does not return the computer-readable text of the book but rather a picture of the matching page, disables printing, and puts limits on the number of pages in a book a single user can access. One author observed that his entire book could be read online by searching a few words[12]. Amazon is planning to launch Search Inside the Book internationally. Additionally, customers can purchase access to the entire book online via the Amazon Upgrade program, although the selection of books eligible for this service is currently limited.
According to information in Amazon.com discussion forums, Amazon derives about 40% of its sales from affiliates, whom they call "Associates." An Associate is an independent seller or business that receives a commission for referring customers to the Amazon.com site.
Associates do this by placing links on their websites to the Amazon homepage or to specific products. If a referral results in a sale, the Associate receives a commission from Amazon. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.[13] Associates can access the Amazon catalog directly on their websites by using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) XML service.
Amazon was one of the first online businesses to set up an affiliate marketing program.[14]AStore is a new affiliate product that allows Associates to embedded a subset of Amazon products within, or linked to from, another website.
According to the Internet audience measurement website Compete.com, Amazon attracts approximately 50 million U.S. consumers to its website on a monthly basis.[15]
In August 1998, Amazon bought Cambridge, Massachusetts-based PlanetAll for 800,000 shares of Amazon stock. PlanetAll operated a web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. In the same deal, Amazon acquired Sunnyvale-based Junglee, an XML-based data mining startup for 1.6 million shares of Amazon stock. The two deals together were valued at about US$280 million at the time.
In June 1999, Amazon bought Alexa Internet, Accept.com and Exchange.com in a set of stock deals worth approximately US$645 million.
In 2004, Amazon purchased Joyo.com, a Chinese e-commerce website. It also debuted A9, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology.
In July 2005, Amazon purchased CreateSpace (formerly CustomFlix), a Scotts Valley, CA-based distributor of on-demand DVDs.[16] Since the acquisition, CreateSpace has expanded its on-line services to include on-demand books and CDs, as well as video downloads. On July 30, 2007, the National Archives announced that it would make thousands of historic films available for purchase through CreateSpace.[17]
In February 2006, Amazon acquired Shopbop, a Madison, Wisconsin-based retailer of designer clothing and accessories for women.[18]
In May 2007, Amazon acquired dpreview.com, a London-based digital photography review website created by Phil Askey as his personal hobby website and Brilliance Audio, the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the United States.[19]
Noteworthy events
In 2002, Amazon became the exclusive retailer for the much-hyped Segway Human Transporter. Bezos was an early supporter of the Segway before its details were made public.
In 2003, Amazon purchased the rival online music retalier CD Now, which was founded in 1994.
On July 16, 2005, Amazon celebrated its 10th anniversary by telecasting a worldwide live concert hosted by Bill Maher and artists such as Bob Dylan and Norah Jones.
Amazon.com has incorporated a number of products and services into its shopping model, either through development or acquisition.
2001
Honor System and donations
The Honor System was originally launched in 2001 to allow customers to make donations or buy digital content, with Amazon collecting 2.9 percent of the payment plus a flat fee of US$.30.
2002
Web Services
Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002. The service provides programmatic access to many features leveraged behind the scenes on its website.
2004
Amazon also created "channels" to benefit certain causes. In 2004, Amazon's "Presidential Candidates" allowed customers to donate US$5-200 to the campaigns of 2004 U.S. presidential hopefuls. Amazon has periodically reactivated a Red Cross donation channel after such tragedies as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. After the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Amazon set up an online donation channel to the American Red Cross, waiving its processing fee. As of January 2005, over 162,000 individuals had donated over US$13.1 million.[citation needed] Similar channels were set up for the British, Canadian, French, German and Japanese Red Cross organizations. Over 7,000 Britons donated more than US$350,000; 900 Canadians over US$56,000; 660 French over US$23,000; 2,900 Germans over US$145,000; and 1,900 Japanese over US$66,000.[citation needed]
2005
Prime
Amazon Prime offers customers free 2-day and discounted priority shipping for a yearly fee of $79 USD. Amazon launched the program in the continental United States in 2005, Japan in June 2007 and the United Kingdom and Germany in November 2007.
Shorts
Launched in 2005, Amazon Shorts offers exclusive short form content, including short stories and non-fiction pieces from best-selling authors, all available for immediate download at US$.49. As of June 2007, the program has over 1,700 pieces and is adding about 50 new pieces per week.
In March 2006, Amazon launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). An unlimited number of data objects, from 1 byte to 5 gigabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via HTTP or BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and for data transferred.
Discussion boards
In August 2006, Amazon launched product wikis (later folded into Amapedia) and discussion forums for certain products using guidelines that follow standard message board conventions.
EC2
In August 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure with its high reliability to run diverse applications ranging from running simulations to web hosting.
2007
Amapedia
In January 2007 Amazon launched Amapedia, a collaborative wiki for user-generated content to replace ProductWiki.
In September 2007, Amazon launched a new music store (currently in beta) called Amazon MP3, which sells downloadable tracks, all in the MP3 format and most recorded at 256 kilobits per second variable bitrate (VBR).[20] Amazon's terms of use agreements legally restrict use of the music, but Amazon does not use DRM to enforce those terms.[citation needed]
Amazon MP3 is selling music from the Big 4 record labels, EMI, Universal, Warner Music, and Sony BMG, as well as many independents; as of January 2008 they are the only store to sell DRM-free music from all Big 4 labels.[21][22][23][24] Previous to the launch of this service, Amazon made an investment in Amie Street, a similar music store with a variable pricing model based on demand.[25]
Vine
In August 2007 Amazon launched Amazon Vine, which allows top product reviewers free access to pre-release products from vendors participating in the program.
FPS
In August 2007 Amazon launched a payment service specifically targeted at developers. Amazon FPS has facilities for developing many different charging models including micro-payments. The service also gives developers easy access to Amazon customers.
Kindle
In November 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Kindle, an e-book reader which downloads content over "Whispernet," a free EV-DO wireless service on the Sprint Nextel network. Initial offerings include approximately 90,000 books, newspapers, magazines and blogs. The screen uses E Ink technology to reduce battery consumption.
SimpleDB
In December 2007, Amazon introduced SimpleDB, a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a high reliability high performance database system.
Undated
Connect
Amazon Connect enables authors to post remarks on their book pages and to customers who have bought their books.
WebStore
WebStore by Amazon allows businesses to create e-commerce websites using Amazon technology. Merchants can customize their sites using their own photos and branding. Sellers pay a commission of 7 percent, which includes credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee of $59.95/month for an unlimited number of webstores and listings.
Controversies
Trademark infringement
In 1999 the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative of Minneapolis, Minnesota sued Amazon.com for trademark infringement. The cooperative had been using the name "Amazon" since 1970, but reached an out-of-court agreement to share the name with the on-line retailer.[26]
Patent use
The company has been controversial for its alleged use of patents as a competitive hindrance. The "1-click patent"[27] is perhaps the best-known example of this. Amazon's use of the one-click patent against competitor Barnes and Noble's website led the Free Software Foundation to announce a boycott on Amazon in December 1999.[28] The boycott was discontinued in September 2002.[29]
On May 12, 2006, the USPTO ordered a reexamination[30] of the "One-Click" patent, based on a request filed by Peter Calveley, who cited as prior art an earlier e-commerce patent and the Digicash electronic cash system.[31]
On February 22, 2000, the company was granted a patent covering an internet-based customer referral system, or what is commonly called an "affiliate program". Reaction was swift and negative. Industry leaders Tim O'Reilly and Charlie Jackson spoke out against the patent,[32] and O'Reilly published an open letter[33] to Bezos protesting the 1-click patent and the affiliate program patent, and petitioning him to "avoid any attempts to limit the further development of internet commerce".
O'Reilly collected 10,000 signatures[34] with this petition. Bezos responded with his own open letter.[35] The protest ended with O'Reilly and Bezos visiting Washington D.C. to lobby for patent reform.
Amazon has a Canadian site in both English and French, but is prevented from operating any headquarters, servers, fulfillment centers or call centers in Canada due to that country's legal restrictions on foreign-owned booksellers. Instead, Amazon's Canadian site originates in the United States, and Amazon has an agreement with Canada Post to handle distribution within Canada and for the use of the Crown corporation's Mississauga, Ontario shipping facility.[37] The launch of Amazon.ca generated controversy in Canada. In 2002, the Canadian Booksellers Association and Indigo Books and Music sought a court ruling that Amazon's partnership with Canada Post represented an attempt to circumvent Canadian law,[38] but the litigation was dropped in 2004.[39]
Customer service
Amazon.com does not publish its toll-free customer service number (+1-800-201-7575) on its own web site. Customers are instead asked to submit written service requests (which are answered by e-mail) or to use a click-to-call service to be connected by phone to an available service representative.[40]
There are numerous Web pages that exist solely to publish the Amazon.com customer service phone numbers, one of which received in excess of 23,000 visits in December 2004 alone.[41] Despite the perceived difficulty in reaching customer service by phone, Amazon.com earned an 87% rating for customer service in the Q4 2006 American Customer Satisfaction Index, second only to barnesandnoble.com llc which earned an 88% rating.[42]
Labor relations
Some employees of Amazon in the United Kingdom are required to submit to drug tests and can have their employment terminated on a positive test. However, the reliability of the tests has been called into question, as in the case of an Amazon worker who won a tribunal case against the company.
The Humane Society of the United States v. Amazon.com, Inc., et al
Amazon continues to carry two cockfighting magazines and two dog fighting videos although the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) contends that the sale of these materials is a violation of U.S. Federal law. The Humane Society of the United States has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.[43] A campaign to boycott Amazon purchases gained momentum in August 2007 after the much publicized dog fighting case involving NFL quarterback Michael Vick.[44]
Reader reviews credibility
A 2004 glitch in Amazon.ca's review system revealed that many well-established authors were anonymously giving themselves glowing reviews, with some revealed to be anonymously giving "rival" authors terrible reviews. The glitch in the system was fixed and those reviews have since been removed or made anonymous.[45][46]
Easter eggs
Two easter eggs exist on Amazon.com's website. They are reached by invisible links at the center of the page below the last line of text.
Additionally, at the bottom of the source code for each page the word 'MEOW' is written in a comment.
Amazon cloud
"Amazon Cloud" refers to the online retailer's delivery and storage of online digital media and their digital rights management system to its consumers from Amazon's servers.
Information stored on the Cloud is that such as eBook purchases made from the Amazon Kindle, which relies on Digital Rights Management (DRM). The storage of each customer's DRM allows him or her to have an online archive of all purchases.
