Tag Archives: Amazon

Las Acciones de Amazon Alcanzan un Récord ya que el Negocio se Expande

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Las acciones de Amazon alcanzan un récord máximo
Las acciones de Amazon alcanzan un récord máximo

A pesar de registrar una pérdida neta para el segundo trimestre del 2013, las acciones de Amazon llegaron a un nuevo pico de $313.62, el viernes, y cerraron a $311.70, un aumento del 2.7 por ciento.

El aumento fue alimentado por la rápida expansión interna con la suba de las ganancias en el mercado nacional.

“Su mayor mercado parece muy saludable,” dijo Matt Nemer, un analista de Wells Fargo.

Amazon una empresa gigante de ventas al por menor en línea, está a medio camino de reinventarse, intentando vender productos tecnológico como tablets y servicios de computadoras cloud a grandes corporaciones e incluso entidades políticas, como los gobiernos. Está haciendo esta renovación mientras simultáneamente crece su mercado en el exterior en lugares como China.

Hasta ahora Amazon ha gastado billones en esta nueva apariencia que se come los ingresos.  No importa, dicen los inversores, confiando en la dirección que el director ejecutivo y Jeff Bezos los está llevando. Están seguros de que Bezos puede lograrlo y que ellos cosecharán grandes ganancias futuras. La confianza de los inversores es lo que está propulsando las acciones de Amazon en su continua subida.

English Translation

Apple Facing Off with Justice Department Over Price Fixing of eBooks

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Conspiring to Raise Prices? Lawsuit Opens Today
Conspiring to Raise Prices? Lawsuit Opens Today

Today Apple Inc is going to trial over accusations being made by state and federal authorities that they conspired with book publishers to increase the cost of eBooks to consumers.

The US Justice Department is taking the famously popular producer of iPads and iPhones to court in a case that observers say will scrutinize how Internet businesses interact with their suppliers of content.

“This case will effectively set the rules for Internet commerce,” said David Balto, a former policy director for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The lawsuit was first filed against Apple along with five of the country’s six largest book publishers back in April, 2012. The suit alleges that they conspired to raise eBook prices in order to halt Amazon’s grip on book pricing.

Apple is on its own for the trial since all five publishers settled out of court by agreeing to halt their prohibitions on wholesale discounts in addition to paying together $164 million in damages for the benefit of consumers. The five publishers are: Pearson Plc’s Penguin Group, News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers Inc, CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc, Hachette Book Group Inc and Macmillan.

The Justice Department is not pursuing monetary damages from Apple, but rather wants Apple to be forced to stop similar practices in the future. Apple is worried that if they are found guilty as charged they will then face separate trials by state attorneys general in which they will indeed by liable for monetary damages through class action lawsuits.
Apple’s chances of coming through the trial unscathed could be small, based on a comment made by the presiding judge at the last hearing before the trial.

“I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books,” said U.S. District Judge Denise Cote on May 23. The judge will hear the case without a jury.
With the judge’s opinion before the trial apparently against Apple, why then isn’t the giant computer company settling out of court?

Chief Executive Tim Cook said in an interview with All Things Digital that Apple was “not going to sign something that says we did something we didn’t do.”

Blockbuster Owner Dish Planning Massive Layoffs

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Layoffs from Blockbuster on the Horizon

In an effort to improve profitability of the US-based video rental store Blockbuster, parent company Dish Network Corp is planning on closing down as many as 300 outlets across the country.

Dish just recently began administering Blockbuster, and would like to unload the unprofitable Blockbuster stores whose business model has been eroded by such online retailers as Amazon and download sites like Apple’s highly popular iTunes store. The closure of 300 stores would mean the laying off of as many as 3,000 workers, representing about 40 percent of Blockbuster’s total workforce of 7,300 in the United States.

“We continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand and we will continue to analyze store-level profitability and, as we have in the past, close unprofitable stores,” Dish said in a statement.

The exact locations of the outlets bound for the chopping block have not yet been revealed.

Holiday Shopping May Suffer from Reverberations of Hurricane Sandy

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Sandy’s Power Continues

Sandy’s power is extending beyond the immediate time and place her winds blew and waters surged as businesses see delays hindering their ability to get merchandise into stores in time for the holiday shopping season.

The superstorm not only closed down shipping terminals and covered warehouses with floor to ceiling water. Deliveries were also hindered by fallen power lines, blocked and closed roads, and severe gasoline shortages in New Jersey and New York.

At any other time of year this would be seen as a serious hinderance to business, but now, just as retailers usually begin to prepare for the frenetic shopping of the Christmas holiday season such a backup or cancellation of orders can spell complete disaster. For many merchants the holidays are when the bulk of their business is contracted.

“Things are slowing down,” said Chris Merritt, vice president for retail supply chain solutions at the trucking company Ryder. “This whole part of the supply chain is clogged up.”
Several examples include:

•    FedEx has rented fuel tankers to insure that its delivery trucks have a steady supply of fuel in the face of commercial stations running dry.
•    Ryder has been looking for trucks to rent to add capacity.
•    The major railroad company CSX has been advising their customers to expect delays at least 72 hours long on their shipments.
•    Retailers such as Amazon and Diane von Furstenberg informed customers to expect shipping delays.

Economic analysts are predicting that the storm will reduce economic growth by as much as a half of a percentage point in the last quarter of 2012. This is a large decrease considering the entire economic growth for all of 2012 was expected to be only about 1-2 percent.

Direct losses from Sandy are going to be much less than the losses caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but the impact of Sandy may well be greater in its aftermath due to the dense population in the Northeastern states where Sandy let lose her destructive forces.

The Northeastern US is responsible for about $3 trillion in output, which is about 20 percent of the nation’s total gross domestic product.

“Part of what was lost will be delayed, but part is lost forever,” said Gregory Daco a senior economist with IHS Global Insight.