{"id":1697,"date":"2022-08-19T03:49:52","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T03:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/?p=1697"},"modified":"2022-08-19T03:49:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T03:49:52","slug":"the-darker-side-of-amazons-acquisitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/?p=1697","title":{"rendered":"The Darker Side of Amazon&#8217;s Acquisitions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='post-thumb'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/markethive.com\/uploads\/azcats72\/images\/posted-images\/New%20MH%20Blog%20Images%20-%20Roomba%20Vacuum_001.jpeg' style='height:1px; width:1px' \/><\/div>\n<h1><strong><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:36px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">The Darker Side of Amazon&rsquo;s Acquisitions<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n<h2><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:22px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">By<strong> Jason Bodner, <\/strong>Editor<strong>,&nbsp;<em>Outlier Insights<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><img alt=\"The Darker Side of Amazon's Acquisitions\" src=\"https:\/\/markethive.com\/uploads\/azcats72\/images\/posted-images\/New%20MH%20Blog%20Images%20-%20Roomba%20Vacuum_001.jpeg\" style=\"height:478px; width:850px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Amazon recently announced it&rsquo;s acquiring iRobot (IRBT) in an all-cash deal for $1.7 billion. The company is best known for its robot vacuum cleaners &ndash; namely, its flagship product the &ldquo;Roomba.&rdquo;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Amazon execs say the deal is a natural extension as part of its mission to move further into robotics and smart home technology.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><strong><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">But there&rsquo;s a darker side to this deal than Amazon would care to admit.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">As of 2020, Amazon&rsquo;s Alexa devices were already in 25% of U.S. homes. They sit on the shelf, tracking, listening, and mining data from our daily lives.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">And it&rsquo;s estimated that the company has hundreds of millions of Ring doorbell security cameras active by our front doors.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Now the company will have up to <strong>40 million Roomba&rsquo;s zipping around the inside of our homes.<\/strong> Some of these automated vacuums even use advanced LIDAR (laser mapping technology) and cameras.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">These technologies enable our Roombas to map out our homes to better see, understand, and avoid obstacles.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">And with Amazon behind them, these devices are capable of monetizing our homes in a whole new way.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align:justify\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:22px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">The Monetization of Our Private Spaces<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">A report from this past April revealed what most of us have guessed &ndash;our conversations with Alexa provide data for the ads we&rsquo;re served by the company.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">And Ring doorbells can watch and listen to us and our neighbors over 50 feet away from our doors, gaining more data on our lives.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">But Amazon knows there&rsquo;s still more data to be obtained inside our houses.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Bloomberg reported that the data Amazon will soon collect from Roombas could be used to determine the value of your home based on how big it is and what you have around the house. It could then combine that data with our Amazon shopping habits.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">All this can create an even more advanced customer profile about us. With Roomba&rsquo;s help, Amazon will know exactly what kind of throw pillows would look great on our couch.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">And in the very near future, we may see it start to show us ads that pertain to what is or is not inside our homes.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align:justify\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:22px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Big Tech Won&rsquo;t Stop<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">If any of us feel uncomfortable with a company gaining so much information about us, that&rsquo;s completely understandable.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Big tech has a dark side &ndash; it&rsquo;s as plain and simple as that.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">If something as mundane as cleaning dog hair off the floor can be monetized, then big tech is going to find a way. And there&rsquo;s no better example of an amazing monetizer than Amazon.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">It has a history of buying up other companies like this:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><strong>Companies That Amazon Owns<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/ci3.googleusercontent.com\/proxy\/VilFiRzp6xuQCoOul5AZEYBZoUXVCbGktO1dTQiVL74ylqtSOzkRBJNidYCvFbwdT9AUxd9tpm0Xz7QHp-C4sVDGA34029ThdjrULyGyoodRRhn1w_wwCH8vFuyJ2oqZGbY=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/cdn.brownstoneresearch.com\/BOS\/images\/202208\/20220818-BOS-02_nqo352.png\" style=\"width:560px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><strong><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><em>Source: SMB Compass<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">It owns streaming hubs, Hollywood production studios, robotics companies, pharmacies, news agencies, grocery stores, and the list goes on.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">It&rsquo;s safe to say Amazon is immersed in nearly every major industry in our lives today &ndash; and it is constantly working on ways to monetize it all.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">So it makes sense why Amazon has fought to integrate with so many areas of our lives. The more data Amazon has, the more it can market and sell to us.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">And Amazon isn&rsquo;t going to stop its acquisitions anytime soon.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/ci5.googleusercontent.com\/proxy\/p3Q_Tp8X4_CsJzMCAM-1_mwwm54J9gIODtV7a-iXGyOtEmibhlMDRiSYNGUCS5_QXx9zbM9tEYghXtOb2JdwC3gKjovFxNYX50mQjZ1r_6vIcG9UNX_BcawQnyEI7dZkQ2w=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/cdn.brownstoneresearch.com\/BOS\/images\/202208\/20220818-BOS-03_ebq141.png\" style=\"width:560px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">It simply makes too much sense for Amazon to continue buying companies. When you play in the league Amazon is in, it&rsquo;s cheaper to buy a business than to build your own.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><strong><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">This strategy has allowed Amazon to become the marketplace for basically everything.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">And even with the huge anti-trust cases we&rsquo;ve seen, the federal government has failed to rein in the Big Tech space, including Amazon.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">So it&rsquo;s hard to imagine anything can stop this giant.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align:justify\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:22px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">If You Can&rsquo;t Beat Them, Join Them<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">&ldquo;If you can&rsquo;t beat them, join them&rdquo; may be a clich&eacute;, but this is certainly a true statement with Amazon. Amazon is a giant, and as investors, there&rsquo;s no way around that fact.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Amazon&rsquo;s revenue in 2021 grew 21.7% year-over-year to over $469 billion. The company is expecting to see that number grow to over $522 billion this year and over $604 billion in 2023.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">And with the recent stock split making share prices more affordable and attractive for everyday investors to buy, now is a fantastic time to buy shares of Amazon (AMZN).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Right now, investors can even get into Amazon while it&rsquo;s trading at a discount.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/ci6.googleusercontent.com\/proxy\/VifumKjb9jf_jZ-z3MB_QNliLtv0lxaV9dlWxc64DrZXRNOEsZ6NA3dasaiJzyz-Yv9mM8uypi5BdO7bmAJeoJVMh5De7ujKEGdUY9MPIaMO1QUKVGTj6w1mRtSYhxlYbvU=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/cdn.brownstoneresearch.com\/BOS\/images\/202208\/20220818-BOS-04_ebq141.png\" style=\"width:560px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Amazon is still down 17% since the beginning of the year.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">But in the past month shares have climbed 25% &ndash; which is consistent with the forecast of a continued rally into the fall.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color:#000000\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Amazon&rsquo;s current price and upward trend reflect a great opportunity to hitch ourselves to a stock with some serious momentum.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align:center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markethive.com\/azcats72\"><img src=\"https:\/\/markethive.com\/images\/banners\/4501.gif\" style=\"height:70px; width:700px\" \/><\/a><\/h3>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:20px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><strong>New Opportunities Are Emerging For Citizens of The World.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><strong>Freedom and democracy<\/strong> may appear to be struggling to stay alive in America, but there may be a knock-out punch ready to be released. The&nbsp;evolution of the blockchain-enabled metaverse is going to enable the <strong>&#39;Citizens of the World&#39;<\/strong> to gain their own <strong>Freedom<\/strong>&nbsp;by democratizing&nbsp;power and creating a new world with new rules, new players, and new opportunities. For 99.99% of us, the metaverse will improve our real-world lives by democratizing power and opportunity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Along with the major long-term trend of society&nbsp;towards <strong>decentralization<\/strong> and smaller-scale organizations,&nbsp;there are&nbsp;new opportunities developing to help &#39;Preparers&#39; in the cryptocurrency sector. Businesses are beginning to issue their own Crypto Coins that can be traded on Cryptocoin Exchanges.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\"><a href=\"https:\/\/markethive.com\/azcats72\">Markethive.com<\/a>&nbsp;will release its HiveCoin (HIV) in the coming weeks. It has tremendous upside potential that is outlined in a Video by Founder Tom Prendergast, &quot;<a href=\"https:\/\/m.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZHh1PFqL9r4&amp;feature=youtu.be\">Entrepreneur Advantage&#8230;<\/a>&quot;.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Not only that, if you go to their website and register as a FREE Member, you will be given&nbsp;<strong>500 HiveCoins<\/strong>&nbsp;for&nbsp;<em><strong>&quot;FREE&quot;<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;along with access to several Earning Opportunities and online tools to increase your HiveCoin balance.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif\">Be sure to check it out today &#8211;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/markethive.com\/azcats72\">Markethive.com<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markethive.com\/azcats72\"><img alt=\"Markethive\" src=\"https:\/\/markethive.com\/uploads\/azcats72\/images\/posted-images\/image-20210404155610-1.png\" style=\"height:168px; width:500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Tim Moseley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Darker Side of Amazon&rsquo;s Acquisitions By Jason Bodner, Editor,&nbsp;Outlier Insights &nbsp; &nbsp; Amazon recently announced it&rsquo;s acquiring iRobot (IRBT) in an all-cash deal for $1.7 billion. The company is best known for its robot vacuum cleaners &ndash; namely, its flagship product the &ldquo;Roomba.&rdquo; Amazon execs say the deal is a natural extension as part &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/?p=1697\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Darker Side of Amazon&#8217;s Acquisitions<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[669,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prendergast.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}