Amazon shareholders

[Batman_fan]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-bezos-leads-amazon-shareholders-blindly-follow-1498147966

Where Bezos Leads, Amazon Shareholders Blindly Follow

Investors unperturbed by lack of details in Whole Foods bid

Investors think Jeff Bezos has the magic touch. Few companies other than Amazon.com Inc. could announce a nearly $14 billion takeover of a mature firm, give no details of why they are buying the very business model they’re trying to disrupt, and have their market value rise by more than the takeover price.

Since Amazon said last week that it would buy upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc., multiple theories have circulated about what it is up to. Some think it is about convenience shopping. Some that it is about customer data. Some suggest logistics, the grocery supply chain, or an extra distribution channel for the company’s growing range of own-brand electronics. Still others think Amazon hasn’t really got a strategy yet. What all seem to agree on is that Amazon will make it work, and other grocers should be cowering in the their freezer cases.

In many ways, Amazon is an exemplar for investors. In most companies, shareholders should encourage more R&D spending, worry less about quarterly targets and tell managers to focus on the business, not the share price. In Amazon’s case, the willingness to accept no explanation at all for a $13.7 billion purchase suggests faith has run too far.

[Batman_fan]

Any shareholders here?

Is this true?

You really blindly follow Bezos? 

[lazybugger]

do they have a choice?

I think some shareholder activism is possible, but it has to come from the institutional investors. individual investors are mostly powerless.

[Batman_fan]

5 minutes ago, lazybugger said:

do they have a choice?

I think some shareholder activism is possible, but it has to come from the institutional investors. individual investors are mostly powerless.

No.

At what point you think it will start? 

[lazybugger]

2 minutes ago, Batman_fan said:

No.

At what point you think it will start? 

I don't think it'll start.

All these big tech companies are now operating like Berkshire Hathaway.. as holding companies, providing value to investors, by dipping their beaks in multiple unrelated businesses. 

For all we know, Bezos bought Whole Foods, just to test his robot assistant Echo's use as cashier, or a stocker. who knows.

The investors (even institutional investors, except some technically minded ones) are not that bright. inspite of how rich they are. They don't want to upset the applecart.

Until Amazon hits a roadblock in user numbers, or has a couple of really crappy quarters, no one will ask a thing off Bezos. He has been very visionary until now.

[Batman_fan]

12 minutes ago, lazybugger said:

I don't think it'll start.

All these big tech companies are now operating like Berkshire Hathaway.. as holding companies, providing value to investors, by dipping their beaks in multiple unrelated businesses. 

For all we know, Bezos bought Whole Foods, just to test his robot assistant Echo's use as cashier, or a stocker. who knows.

The investors (even institutional investors, except some technically minded ones) are not that bright. inspite of how rich they are. They don't want to upset the applecart.

Until Amazon hits a roadblock in user numbers, or has a couple of really crappy quarters, no one will ask a thing off Bezos. He has been very visionary until now.

I agree. I think no one can touch Amazon for another decade, which is good.  

[lazybugger]

12 minutes ago, Batman_fan said:

I agree. I think no one can touch Amazon for another decade, which is good.  

That's too long term man.

1000 ways Amazon can fall. number 1. radical improvement in additive manufacturing technologies. open sourcing distribution networks etc.