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Tag: Amazon

  • Verizon and Amazon Partner to Deliver Satellite Internet to Rural Areas

    Verizon and Amazon Partner to Deliver Satellite Internet to Rural Areas

    Verizon and Amazon have announced a partnership to use the latter’s Project Kuiper satellites to deliver internet access to underserved communities.

    Many companies and organizations are working to address the US “digital divide,” the difference in available internet access for rural vs urban areas. Verizon has been rolling out its Home Internet solution, which uses the company’s wireless service to provide internet access.

    In its latest move, Verizon is turning to Amazon’s Project Kuiper to help extend its existing network and serve as the backend for its efforts. Project Kuiper will deliver broadband internet via a constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The company received FCC clearance in July 2020 to launch as many as 3,236 satellites. The approval was conditioned on the company launching at least half that number by July 2026. To date, however, not a single satellite has been launched.

    Despite that, it appears Verizon has confidence in Project Kuiper.

    “Project Kuiper offers flexibility and unique capabilities for a LEO satellite system, and we’re excited about the prospect of adding a complementary connectivity layer to our existing partnership with Amazon,” Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said. “We know the future will be built on our leading 5G network, designed for mobility, fixed wireless access and real-time cloud compute. More importantly, we believe that the power of this technology must be accessible for all. Today’s announcement will help us explore ways to bridge that divide and accelerate the benefits and innovation of wireless connectivity, helping benefit our customers on both a global and local scale.”

    “There are billions of people without reliable broadband access, and no single company will close the digital divide on its own,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said. “Verizon is a leader in wireless technology and infrastructure, and we’re proud to be working together to explore bringing fast, reliable broadband to the customers and communities who need it most. We look forward to partnering with companies and organizations around the world who share this commitment.”

    Verizon is already struggling to play catchup to T-Mobile’s 5G network. It remains to be seen if hitching its rural endeavors to a company that has yet to deliver will pay off.

  • Amazon Expands Free Local News Coverage on Fire TV

    Amazon Expands Free Local News Coverage on Fire TV

    Amazon has expanded its free local news coverage on its Fire TV streaming device.

    Amazon introduced its free news app last year, initially in just 12 cities. In March, the company expanded to 88 markets. The company has once again expanded the service, this time to 158 cities across the US.

    Today’s expansion includes cities like Charleston, Wichita, Tucson, Reno, Raleigh-Durham, Honolulu, and Lincoln, and will double the local stations available from 126 to 259.

    Customers can access their local news under the “Local News” tab in the app, or by saying “Alexa, play local news” using the Alexa Voice Remote.

  • Major Retailers Commit to Zero-Carbon Ships by 2040

    Major Retailers Commit to Zero-Carbon Ships by 2040

    Some of the world’s biggest retailers have taken a significant step toward decarbonization, committing to zero-carbon ocean shipping by 2040.

    Cargo ships are one of the world’s biggest polluters, yet they are a vital part of international trade. Multiple companies have worked to address the problem, but any real solution requires the retailers shipping products to be on board (pun intended).

    It appears that some of the world’s largest retailers are doing just that, committing to using only cargo ships that use zero-carbon fuel by 2040. Amazon, IKEA, Patagonia and Michelin are just a few of the retailers involved in Cargo Owners for Zero Emissions Vehicles (COZEV).

    “We recognize that reaching this goal requires the shipping industry to deploy new technologies and utilize zero-carbon shipping fuels that are not yet in widespread use,” the companies write. “By setting this target and signaling our dedication to decarbonize this part of our supply chains, we hope to inspire a surge in investment by ocean freight carriers and producers of zero-carbon shipping fuels. To satisfy our climate ambitions, investments should focus on solutions with the potential—either individually or in combination—to reach sufficient scale to truly decarbonize our supply chains by 2040 and the entire shipping industry by 2050 at the latest. As we evaluate potential solutions, we should also ensure they can become economically viable through collaboration across the supply chain and with appropriate policy support.”

  • Lawmakers Accuse Amazon of Misleading Congress, Threaten Criminal Probe

    Lawmakers Accuse Amazon of Misleading Congress, Threaten Criminal Probe

    Amazon is in the hot seat, with US lawmakers accusing the e-commerce giant of misleading Congress and threatening a criminal probe in response.

    Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce website, but not everyone is happy with how the company conducts business. The company has recently been accused of promoting its own brands at the expense of other, more popular options.

    Lawmakers are now saying Amazon lied to them about how it uses third-party seller data, accusing the company of using that data for its own benefit. Doing so would give the e-commerce giant a significant advantage over the companies using its platform to sell their goods, allowing Amazon to determine what products and features are particularly desirable to consumers and then create knockoffs. Combined with its practice of promoting its own goods over others, it paints a picture of a company that preys off of the very companies that have helped make its platform so successful.

    In response to a report in Reuters, the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Amazon giving the company one last chance to correct the record.

    “At best, this reporting confirms that Amazon’s representatives misled the Committee. At worst, it demonstrates that they may have lied to Congress in possible violation of federal criminal law. In light of the serious nature of this matter, we are providing you with a final opportunity to provide exculpatory evidence to corroborate the prior testimony and statements on behalf of Amazon to the Committee. We strongly encourage you to make use of this opportunity to correct the record and provide the Committee with sworn, truthful, and accurate responses to this request as we consider whether a referral of this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation is appropriate.”

  • Microsoft and Amazon Come to an Agreement Over Charlie Bell

    Microsoft and Amazon Come to an Agreement Over Charlie Bell

    Microsoft and Amazon have come to an agreement over Charlie Bell, paving the way for the former Amazon exec to begin his duties at Microsoft.

    Charlie Bell surprised the industry when he announced he was taking a job at Microsoft. Bell was considered a leading candidate to replace Andy Jassy as AWS CEO when Jassy replaced Jeff Bezos. Despite being with Amazon for 23 years, Bell left the company, only to join Microsoft just two weeks later.

    Initially it looked like there was question about when Bell would be able to start in his new role as lead of the newly formed Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management team, especially since Amazon is notoriously aggressive about holding employees to non-compete agreements.

    According to The Seattle Times, the two companies have come to an arrangement that will allow Bell to move forward, after establishing terms regarding the limits of his new role.

    “After constructive discussions with Amazon, Charlie Bell started his new role on Oct. 11, focused on advancing cybersecurity capabilities that will benefit the tech sector and the broader economy,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.

  • Amazon to Allow Employees to Continue Working Remotely

    Amazon to Allow Employees to Continue Working Remotely

    Amazon has updated its guidance for employees, telling them they will be able to continue working remotely.

    Amazon has been working to adapt to the pandemic-fueled shift to remote work. Like many others, the company has changed its guidance as the pandemic has continued, exploring different possibilities for a “new normal.”

    In CEO Andy Jassy’s latest email to staff, Jassy acknowledges the company has changed direction a couple of times.

    We’ve shared a couple of updates on this topic, first thinking we’d be back in the office in September 2021, and then by January 2022, with the suggestion that we should all try to be in the office at least three days a week. This guidance prompted questions, like, “Who decides which days, does the team need to be in the same days, are there certain functions or teams that can work more effectively at home vs the office (and vice versa),” and many more. We met several times as a leadership team to discuss these questions, and generally agreed on three things.

    Ultimately, leadership decided no one knows the answers to those questions at this stage, there is no one-size-fits-all solution and the company will need to keep experimenting to find how to best navigate the current situation. As a result, Amazon is changing its focus.

    Instead of prescribing a set amount of days to be in the office, the company will leave the decision to individual teams. The main focus will be on serving customers, and making sure their needs are being met.

    Jassy said the company wants most “people close enough to their core team that they can easily travel to the office for a meeting within a day’s notice.” At the same time, Jassy said the company wants to continue supporting individuals that want to work remotely for a few weeks in a different location, voicing support for the importance of recharging from time to time.

    We want to support this flexibility and will continue to offer those corporate employees, who can work effectively away from the office, the option to work up to four weeks per year fully remote from any location within your country of employment.

    In many ways, Amazon is taking a similar stand as Microsoft, no longer placing a time limit on when things will get back to normal and adopting an approach that focuses on adapting to the current reality.

    As mentioned earlier, these are unusual times and we’re all learning together what we believe is the best way to work together to make customers’ lives easier and better every day. And with it being so early in our mission, with lots of invention and change in front of us, you can bet that we will continue to adjust as we keep learning what makes most sense for our customers and teams.

  • Twitch Suffers Devastating Cyberattack Exposing Source Code

    Twitch Suffers Devastating Cyberattack Exposing Source Code

    Twitch, the popular video game streaming platform, suffered a major cyberattack that exposed its source code and payment model.

    Source code and financial details are some of the most sensitive information that companies take great pains to protect. Unfortunately for the Amazon-owned streaming service, that’s exactly what hackers exposed.

    “Jeff Bezos paid $970 million for this, we’re giving it away FOR FREE,” wrote one of the hackers, via Mashable, referencing the “entirety” of Twitch.tv’s source code, dating “back to its early beginnings.”

    It appears Twitch was specifically targeted, with the hackers citing the platform’s “disgusting toxic cesspool” as a motive, along with a desire to foster greater competition in the market.

    The hack also included information about how much Twitch pays its creators, from 2019 to the present.

    The company acknowledged it suffered a breach, and is working hard to investigate the incident.

    We have learned that some data was exposed to the internet due to an error in a Twitch server configuration change that was subsequently accessed by a malicious third party. Our teams are working with urgency to investigate the incident.

  • Cloud Giants Announce ‘Trusted Cloud Principles’

    Cloud Giants Announce ‘Trusted Cloud Principles’

    Microsoft, Amazon and Google have announced “Trusted Cloud Principles,” an industry initiative aimed at protecting customer rights in the cloud.

    With the rise of cloud computing, there are a number of issues that cloud companies and regulators are grappling with, not the least of which is privacy. Different jurisdictions have different privacy laws and requirements, making it a challenge for cloud companies to do business internationally.

    The three largest cloud providers — Amazon, Microsoft and Google — have created a set of Trusted Cloud Principles designed to help govern how cloud companies should operate. The initiative also has the support of Atlassian, Cisco, IBM, Salesforce and Slack.

    Through this initiative we seek to partner with governments around the world to resolve international conflicts of law that impede innovation, #security, and #privacy, and to establish and ensure basic protections for organizations that store and process data in the #cloud. Through this initiative, we commit to working with governments to ensure the free flow of data, to promote public safety, and to protect privacy and data security in the #cloud.

    The initiative’s website clearly outlines the group’s mission statement:

    Trusted Cloud Principles signatories are committed to protecting the rights of our customers. We have agreed to strong principles that ensure we compete while maintaining consistent human rights standards.

  • Top Tech Firms Backing Groups Fighting Climate Legislation

    Top Tech Firms Backing Groups Fighting Climate Legislation

    Despite their stated support for efforts to combat climate change, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Disney support groups fighting such legislation.

    According to The Guardian, lobby groups are actively fighting the $3.5 trillion budget bill that Democrats are trying to pass. The bill contains some of the most comprehensive measures to fight climate change.

    In spite of the bill seemingly lining up with companies’ support for such climate efforts, lobby groups are working hard to sink the bill.

    “Major corporations love to tell us how committed they are to addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable future, but behind closed doors, they are funding the very industry trade groups that are fighting tooth and nail to stop the biggest climate change bill ever,” said Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, which was responsible for the analysis.

    The Guardian reached out to the companies in question, none of whom denied their backing of the lobby groups or disavowed the lobbyists’ efforts. None of the companies indicated they had any plans to review their position either.

    “Hiding behind these shady groups doesn’t just put our environment at risk – it puts these companies’ household names and reputations in serious jeopardy,” Herrig said.

  • NASA: Blue Origin ‘Gambled’ On Its Proposal and Lost

    NASA: Blue Origin ‘Gambled’ On Its Proposal and Lost

    More details are emerging about Blue Origin’s losing bid for NASA’s lunar lander, and it appears the company made a risky gamble that backfired.

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin were two of the companies bidding for a contract to provide NASA’s new lunar lander. SpaceX ultimately won the contract, coming in substantially cheaper than Blue Origin’s bid. Blue Origin appealed NASA’s decision to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), and then sued the government when the GAO upheld NASA’s decision.

    More details have emerged, and it appears Blue Origin shot for the moon (pun intended), basing their bid on the belief that NASA would accept the higher bid and then negotiate a lower price after the fact.

    The company “made an assumption about the Agency’s HLS budget, built its proposal with this figure in mind, and also separately made a calculated bet that if NASA could not afford Blue Origin’s initially-proposed price, the Agency would select Blue Origin for award and engage in post-selection negotiations to allow Blue Origin to lower its price. All of these assumptions were incorrect,” the four NASA attorneys wrote in the Agency Report, according to The Verge. “Realizing now that it gambled and lost, Blue Origin seeks to use GAO’s procurement oversight function to improperly compel NASA to suffer the consequences of Blue Origin’s ill-conceived choices.”

    Because that’s totally how bidding usually works: Accept an overpriced bid, that didn’t score as high as the competitor’s, and then negotiate with the winning bidder in the hopes they’ll offer a lower price after they’ve already won. Or at least that appears to be how Blue Origin thinks bidding should work.

    This isn’t the first time one of Jeff Bezos’ companies has overbid, lost a contract and they cried foul. Microsoft accused Amazon of doing the same thing when it sued after losing out on the Pentagon’s JEDI contract, saying Amazon used the litigation process to see the particulars of Microsoft’s sealed bid and then lowered its own to be more competitive.

    Interestingly, Bezos’ companies seem to be aware of the reputation they’re building — as sore losers that resort to litigation to compensate for overpriced bids — as Amazon “sent The Verge an unsolicited 13-page list” of legal actions it says SpaceX has taken over the years, in what appears to be an effort to prove it’s no more litigious than the next company.

    Ultimately, NASA said it best: “Blue Origin made a bet and it lost.”

  • CBP Adopting Wickr, Amazon’s Encrypted Chat App

    CBP Adopting Wickr, Amazon’s Encrypted Chat App

    Amazon has scored a major contract with US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), with the agency adopting Amazon’s Wickr platform.

    Amazon purchased Wickr in June, filling a conspicuous hole in the company’s services. While Apple, Microsoft and Google all have popular messaging platforms, Amazon did not have a widely successful platform of its own.

    Wickr is known as one of the most secure, end-to-end encrypted messaging apps on the market, making it a natural choice for government agencies.

    According to Motherboard, the contract is “to renew and procure additional Wickr software licenses and professional support to deploy a secure instant messaging platform for multi-purpose applications across all CBP components.”

    The CBP contract is early validation of Amazon’s purchase of the service.

  • Amazon Reveals Astro, Its Home Robot

    Amazon Reveals Astro, Its Home Robot

    Amazon has revealed a new robot, dubbed Astro, designed to help out around the home.

    Amazon has been rumored to be working on a home robot for some time, one that builds on its Alexa line of home assistants. The company has now revealed Astro, its “vision for home robotics.”

    Astro is designed to perform a variety of tasks around the home, including monitoring, keeping in touch with family and bringing items from one room to another. Alexa Guard can help Astro monitor smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms or glass breaking, and then notify the homeowner via a phone alert.

    Amazon created Astro to display a “personality,” with the goal of being as helpful as possible. The robot will even hang out in areas where it can be most useful.

    “Astro’s personality not only helps it communicate intent and offer delightful experiences, but it also evokes emotions like empathy when people use the device,” writes Charlie Tritschler, Vice President of Products at Amazon. “In testing, we’ve been humbled by the number of people who said Astro’s personality made it feel like a part of their family, and that they would miss the device in their home after it was gone. That kind of connection is rare with consumer electronics, but we hope it will be commonplace with Astro and other future robots in the home.”

    Customers can sign up to be invited once Astro is available. The robot will cost $1,449.99, but will be available for $999.99 as part of the Day 1 Editions program when paired with a six-month Ring Protect Pro trial.

  • Microsoft and Amazon May Be Headed for a Fight Over Charlie Bell

    Microsoft and Amazon May Be Headed for a Fight Over Charlie Bell

    Microsoft scored a major victory when it poached longtime Amazon exec Charlie Bell, but the fight to use him may be just getting started.

    Charlie Bell was a 23-year veteran of Amazon and a leading candidate to replace Andy Jassy as AWS CEO when the latter replaced Jeff Bezos as Amazon’s CEO. Needless to say, Bell surprised many when he accepted employment at Microsoft, Amazon’s main cloud competitor.

    Initially, Bell was listed as reporting to executive vice president and HR head Kathleen Hogan, an odd place for a veteran cloud executive to land. As we mentioned in our coverage, the listing was likely temporary until an official announcement could be made.

    It appears Bell has now been given an official role, at least in name, leading the newly formed Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management team. He made the announcement on LinkedIn.

    I’m thrilled to join Microsoft to take on one of the greatest challenges of our time, leading a newly formed engineering organization: Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management. As digital services have become an integral part of our lives, we’re outstripping our ability to provide security and safety. It’s constantly highlighted in the headlines we see every day: fraud, theft, ransomware attacks, public exposure of private data, and even attacks against physical infrastructure. This has been weighing on my mind and the best way I can think to describe it is “digital medievalism,” where organizations and individuals each depend on the walls of their castles and the strength of their citizens against bad actors who can simply retreat to their own castle with the spoils of an attack.

    Bell also had high praise for his new employer, and its ability to help address these challenges.

    We all want a world where safety is an invariant, something that is always true, and we can constantly prove we have. We all want digital civilization. I believe Microsoft is the only company in a position to deliver this and I couldn’t be more excited to work with this talented team to make the world safer for every person and organization on the planet.

    The elephant in the room, however, is how Amazon will respond. The company is notorious for suing employees that leave for rival companies, citing the non-compete agreements they signed.

    Microsoft, along with CEO Satya Nadella, hinted at the potential issues Amazon might raise.

    “We’re sensitive to the importance of working through these issues together, as we’ve done when five recent Microsoft executives moved across town to work for Amazon,” Microsoft said in a statement, according to Bloomberg.

    Nadella told employees in an email that Bell would start in his new role when “a resolution is reached with his former employer.”

    Microsoft’s statement is an interesting choice of words, drawing attention to how it handled losing five of its own executives to Amazon. The not-so-subtle implication being that Amazon should tread carefully lest Microsoft give it a taste of its own medicine.

  • Amazon Unveils Fire TV Omni Series, Its Line of Smart TVs

    Amazon Unveils Fire TV Omni Series, Its Line of Smart TVs

    Not just content to sell other companies TVs, Amazon has unveiled its own line of smart TVs, the Fire TV Omni Series.

    Amazon currently sells the Fire TV Stick line of streaming hubs, giving customers a convenient way to stream Prime Video, as well as virtually all the major streaming platforms. The company is now building on that with the Fire TV Omni Series, a family of full-fledged smart TVs.

    The Fire TV Omni Series is available in a variety of sizes, including 43”, 50”, 55”, 65”, and 75”, and will offer 4K Ultra HD, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Digital Plus. The two biggest models sport a slim bezel for improved aesthetics and include support for Dolby Vision.

    “We’ve reimagined what a TV can do by building it with two of our most popular experiences at the core—the intelligent always-available power of far-field Alexa, and Fire TV’s content-forward approach to entertainment,” said Daniel Rausch, Vice President, Amazon Entertainment Devices and Services. “Our new Fire TV Omni Series smart TVs, with hands-free access to Alexa, make controlling your TV faster, simpler, and more natural.” 

    The TVs will be released October 27 and will start at $409.99.

  • California Bill Takes Aim at Amazon’s Warehouse Working Conditions

    California Bill Takes Aim at Amazon’s Warehouse Working Conditions

    Amazon has been under increased scrutiny over its labor practices, but a California bill may finally do something about it.

    Recently, Amazon has gone from one labor-related issue to another. The company settled with the FTC over stiffing its delivery drivers $62 million in tips and has been accused of violating labor laws in Alabama. The company has also been accused of substandard working conditions in its warehouses, with workers under constant pressure to maintain an unreasonable pace.

    California appears poised to tackle the problem, according to The New York Times, with a bill that has already passed the Assembly and likely up for a vote in the State Senate this week.

    Among other things, the bill would require companies to disclose productivity quotas that algorithms track and companies use to evaluate whether to keep or fire employees.

    “The supervisory function is being taken over by computers,” said the bill’s author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez. “But they’re not taking into account the human factor.”

    The bill would also ensure that employees are able to take bathroom breaks and state-mandated breaks, regardless of the company’s policy or quotas.

    If the law passes, it could have profound repercussions for Amazon, as well as countless other companies.

  • Amazon Will Hire More Than 40,000 Corporate and Tech Roles

    Amazon Will Hire More Than 40,000 Corporate and Tech Roles

    During Amazon’s Career Day 2021, to be held on September 15, the company plans to hire more than 40,000 corporate and tech roles.

    Amazon has experienced significant growth as a result of the pandemic. During lockdowns and quarantines, the company’s e-commerce platform was the lifeline for many consumers. The company has already went through multiple hiring sprees.

    Amazon has now announced it will hire more than 40,000 tech and corporate roles during Career Day 2021, along with tens of thousands of hourly positions in its Operations network.

    “We’re working hard every day to be the best place for people to have satisfying and fulfilling long-term careers,” said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. “Amazon continues to grow quickly and relentlessly invent across many areas, and we’re hoping that Career Day gives both job seekers and current Amazon employees the support they need to learn new skills or reimagine their careers at Amazon or elsewhere.”

    Amazon says it is the biggest job creator in the US right now, and has hired a whopping 450,000 individuals since the pandemic started. It appears the company isn’t slowing down yet.

  • Elon Musk Joins Chorus of Voices Opposed to Nvidia/Arm Deal

    Elon Musk Joins Chorus of Voices Opposed to Nvidia/Arm Deal

    Elon Musk has voiced concern over Nvidia’s upcoming Arm acquisition, joining a growing list of concerned parties.

    Nvidia rocked the semiconductor market when it announced a deal to acquire Arm, the leading British tech company. Arm holds a unique position in the industry, creating and licensing chips designs that its customers then manufacture for their own use.

    Skeptics immediately started voicing concern over a US-based company buying Arm, especially one that would have a vested interest in keeping Arm’s best innovations for itself. Should Nvidia go that route, it would be a major departure for Arm, which has always been the semiconductor version of Switzerland — remaining strictly neutral and selling to everyone and anyone. To date, no amount of reassurance on Nvidia’s part has assuaged those concerns, with UK lawmakers threatening to block the deal.

    According to The Telegraph, via Reuters, Elon Musk has also expressed concern over the prospective merger. In addition, Amazon and Samsung have both come out in opposition to the deal, expressing such to US authorities.

    Given the existing opposition from UK authorities, additional opposition from CEOs and other companies is sure to add additional pressure to what is already a tenuous deal.

  • Big Tech Pledges Billions, Jobs and Training to Boost US Cybersecurity

    Big Tech Pledges Billions, Jobs and Training to Boost US Cybersecurity

    President Joe Biden met with leaders of the biggest tech firms, securing commitments from them to help improve US cybersecurity.

    US agencies and businesses have increasingly been under attack, with multiple high-profile cybersecurity incidents. As a result, President Biden has met with tech leaders in an effort to enlist their assistance.

    • Apple agreed to create a new program to improve security in the technology supply chain, as well as “drive the mass adoption of multi-factor authentication, security training, vulnerability remediation, event logging, and incident response.”
    • Google says it will invest $10 billion over the next five years to help secure the supply chain, improve open source security and expand zero-trust security — especially critical for cloud computing platforms.
    • IBM plans to provide cybersecurity training to 150,000 people over the next three years, and “will partner with more than 20 Historically Black Colleges & Universities to establish Cybersecurity Leadership Centers to grow a more diverse cyber workforce.”
    • Over the next five years, Microsoft will invest $20 billion to “integrate cyber security by design and deliver advanced security solutions,” in addition to providing another $150 million in technical services to government agencies looking to improve their cybersecurity.
    • Amazon plans to make its employee security awareness training available to the public free-of-charge. The company will also provide all AWS account holders a multi-factor authentication device.

    These commitments by the biggest names in tech are significant, and should go a long way toward shoring up US cybersecurity.

  • Amazon Partners With Affirm to Offer Buy Now, Pay Later

    Amazon Partners With Affirm to Offer Buy Now, Pay Later

    Amazon is partnering with Affirm to offer its customers the option to buy now, pay later.

    Buy now, pay later is becoming an increasingly popular option, even in e-commerce. Square recently inked a deal to purchase Afterpay Limited in an effort to offer buy now, pay later.

    Amazon is now getting in on the action, partnering with Affirm to offers its customers the convenience.

    As a result of Amazon and Affirm’s partnership, select Amazon customers now have the option to split the total cost of purchases of $50 or more into simple monthly payments by using Affirm. Approved customers are shown the total cost of their purchase upfront and will never pay more than what they agree to at checkout. As always, when choosing Affirm, consumers will not be charged any late or hidden fees. 

    The two companies are testing the service with select customers, but intend on bringing it to Amazon’s wider customer base as soon as possible.

    “By partnering with Amazon we’re bringing the transparency, predictability and affordability that Affirm provides today to the millions of people who shop on Amazon.com in the U.S.,” said Eric Morse, Senior Vice President of Sales at Affirm. “Offering Affirm’s alternative to credit cards also delivers more of the payment choice and flexibility consumers on Amazon want.”

  • Rivian Prepares for an IPO

    Rivian Prepares for an IPO

    Electric vehicle startup Rivian is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) as the electric vehicle market heats up.

    Rivian is one of the main up-and-coming competitors to Tesla, and has the investment backers to match. Amazon and Ford are both heavy investors in the company, as is Cox Automotive. When comparing upcoming vehicles, Tesla, Ford and Rivian’s vehicles are often compared head-to-head.

    Rivian has now announced its intentions to go public, as it prepares for its IPO.

    Rivian today announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) relating to the proposed public offering of its common stock. The size and price range for the proposed offering have yet to be determined. The initial public offering is expected to take place after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.

  • Amazon Expands A-to-z Guarantee to Cover Personal/Property Damage

    Amazon Expands A-to-z Guarantee to Cover Personal/Property Damage

    Amazon has unveiled a major upgrade to its A-to-z Guarantee, vowing to cover personal or property damage caused by defective products.

    A-to-z Guarantee was initially rolled out 20 years ago and provided no-hassle returns for products sold by third-party sellers on Amazon’s store. The company is now expanding that to cover damage caused by defective products sold via Amazon, including products that are sold by third-parties.

    The program will automatically cover up to $1,000, at no cost to the seller, although Amazon reserves the right to cover more expensive claims if it feels the seller is not properly addressing the issue.

    Amazon announced the program in a blog post:

    Now, in the unlikely event a defective product sold through Amazon.com causes property damage or personal injury, Amazon will directly pay customers for claims under $1,000—which account for more than 80% of cases—at no cost to sellers, and may step in to pay claims for higher amounts if the seller is unresponsive or rejects a claim we believe to be valid. We are also launching Amazon Insurance Accelerator to help sellers buy insurance at competitive rates from trusted providers. We’re excited that these innovations create a more trustworthy shopping and selling experience for customers and sellers in our store.

    The new policy is good news for customers and sellers alike.