When browsing the Amazon store, it is unlikely that you will not find a product that you want – many of these products are from the company itself. If you think of a way to automate tasks, Jeff Bezos' company will certainly have a gadget that will meet your needs. In streaming, the company is also present on Twitch, Prime and channels that can be purchased within the service.
This broad catalog of products and services provided is possible thanks to partnerships and acquisitions that the company has made in recent years.
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Unsurprisingly, the Washington company has its main focus on the retail sector. But, through acquisitions, Amazon has created a broad ecosystem of products and services, from health, food, apparel, streaming, audio-visual and more. No wonder it is known for its economic and cultural influence around the world.
In all, Amazon has about 128 subsidiary companies around the world. O Technology Refugee made a list of the main companies of different sectors.
iRobot
Recently, Amazon closed a deal with the robot vacuum cleaner company iRobot. The brand's equipment will be part of the technology giant's line of domestic robots. For the acquisition of the maker of the Roomba, the company of Jeff Bezos had to disburse US$ 1,7 billion.
Amazon Robotics (Ex Kiva Systems)
Kiva Systems, founded in 2003, became known for its robots, automated storage systems and other features that ensure greater productivity in factories and industries.
Zappos
Retailer of clothing and footwear items, Zappos was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn, and its success throughout the 2000s led to the company being owned in 2009 by Amazon, which at the time was known for the exclusive trade of books. the acquisition, the company stopped being just a library and started to sell clothes and shoes.
Ring
Ring is an electronic doorbell company founded in 2013 and was owned by Amazon in 2018. Since then, the company has been involved in controversies regarding the way it maintains user privacy.
Amazon recently admitted to handing over recordings of users' homes to US police. The company claimed that the situations in which it had to deliver the recordings to police officers were situations of “imminent danger”.
Pill Pack
PillPack is an exclusively online pharmacy. Today, the idea is one, but in its creation the company emerged as an innovator by receiving prescriptions and recipes through its system.
The pharmacy was acquired for around US$ 753 million in 2018, being improved by Amazon's delivery system, which optimized the routing of medicines. Later, it joined the Amazon Care online clinic – which for the time being has operated exclusively for company employees and family members.
Twitch
The popular live streaming service widely used by gamers has not always belonged to Amazon. The company was established in 2011, and at the end of 2013, the company had around 45 million active users.
In 2014, a report by Variety revealed that Google even presented a preliminary agreement of US$ 1 billion to stop the platform. However, because of antitrust laws, the order was not implemented, after all Google, owner of YouTube, would control the video streaming market, which configures a monopoly.
MGM Holdings Inc
So excited to share that MGM is now part of Prime Video and Amazon Studioshttps://t.co/M3eR5C0kjJ
— MGM Studios (@mgmstudios) March 17, 2022MGM Holding, which owns MGM Studios, is known for numerous productions of several classic films and successful franchises such as '007', 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Rocky', 'Robocop', 'Chucky' and hundreds of other feature films. -popular films.
In March 2022, Amazon purchased the film company for $8,45 billion. As a result, several MGM films and series were added to the Prime Video catalogue.
Audible
Audible is known for being the most popular audiobook platform in the world. In 2008, the service was owned by Amazon for $300 million and became a subsidiary of the company. Today, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan and India are present.
Goodreads
Goodreads is a website founded in 2006 that allows you to catalog books that have been read by the user and make reposts, functioning as a social network for books.
In 2013, Amazon sold the site for an amount that was kept confidential by both companies. the acquisition, users who were interested in a book on Goodreads now had a link that led to the Amazon store to place it.
IMBD
IMDB (Internet Movie Database) is a popular platform among moviegoers, as it works like a Wikipedia of movies and series. The application's database has all the information about movies and series, directors, actors, producers, curiosities and reviews – both from users and from specialized critics.
The platform was founded in 1990 and was one of the early acquisitions of Amazon, which paid $55 million for IMDB in 1998.
Lab126
Lab126 is the Amazon subsidiary company responsible for developing and manufacturing the products in the company's integrated products ecosystem the Kindle, Echo, Fire TV and Alexa.
Amazon Fresh
Amazon launched in 2007 a delivery service, similar to Prime, but focused on grocery deliveries, Amazon Fresh, which ships household items and consumables to several US cities. Through the service, customers can order items for express delivery to their homes.
Later, Amazon Fresh gained physical stores to sell the products. The first cities to receive the stores were Los Angeles and Chicago.
Whole Foods
Whole Foods is an organic food company that has more than 500 stores in the US, Canada and the UK. In July 2017, the company was acquired by Amazon for $13,7 billion. Whole Foods products are sold in the food sector of Amazon's physical stores with Amazon Fresh, the brand's supermarket.
AbeBooks
AbeBooks is an online bookstore founded in 1995 in Canada and became known for having rare books in its catalog. In 2007, Amazon shelled out between $90 and $120 million to buy AbeBooks.
Woot
Woot is an online retailer of various types of products from categories such as electronics, clothing, household items, tools, sports and etc. The Dallas, Texas-based store was acquired by Amazon in 2010 for $110 million.
Eero
In 2019, Amazon purchased Wi-Fi router manufacturer Eero – the acquisition price was not disclosed. The motivation for pra happened due to Amazon's interest in improving the connectivity of the brand's products. The strategy when buying the Wi-Fi manufacturer was to sell it something that would improve the functioning of its products that need internet such as Alexa, Fire TV, Ring, etc.
Amazon Annapurna Labs
Annapurna Labs is an Israeli laboratory that produces chips for data centers. The company was founded in 2011 by Avigdor Willenz. In 2016, Amazon sold the startup for around $350 million.
The main reason for acquiring the laboratory was the use of more efficient chips in Amazon's own data centers.
Book Depository
The Book Depository is yet another Amazon online bookstore with a large catalog. The company was founded in the UK in 2004 by Andrew Crawford and Stuart Felton. It ships free books worldwide and was acquired by Jeff Bezos' company in 2011.
Fabric.
Phoenix Textile Group was founded in 1993 as a distributor of apparel fabrics. In 2008, Amazon banned the distributor, which even today has its own website with the seal “An Amazon company”. The value of the acquisition was not disclosed.
zoox
In 2020, Amazon decided to venture into the car sector and bought the autonomous car company Zoox, for about $ 1,2 billion. At the end of the same year, Zoox launched the Amazon Zoox, a taxi robot capable of driving passengers without the need for a driver.
iXology
iXology is a digital comics platform founded in 2007 by David Steinberger, John D. Roberts and Peter Jaffe. The company was widely known for its variety of comics.
In 2014, Amazon banned the comics platform, which caused discontent among most users, who complained that changes to the platform by Amazon made the service catalog “disorganized” and bad navigation.
Shoppop
The online store for women's and men's fashion clothing and accessories, Shopbop, was owned by Amazon in 2006. For a long time, the store continued to operate independently from Amazon.
Imagem: Sergei Elagin/ Shutterstock
Fonte: The Org
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