Amazon and Google settle feud, bring YouTube back to Fire TV devices

Feuding tech giants Amazon and Google have come to an agreement on their streaming services. After over a year of absence, the official YouTube app will return to Amazon Fire TV devices and Fire TV Edition smart TVs. Google pulled the video streaming app in early 2018 after it could not strike a deal with the online retail giant surrounding the availability of its products and services. According to reports at the time, Google was unhappy with Amazon because the retailer didn't sell a number of its products, including Chromecast and Google Home devices. The two companies couldn't strike a business deal that pleased both parties, so Google removed the official YouTube app from Fire TV devices at the start of 2018. This came a

Here’s What One Amazon Bull Took From the Annual Jeff Bezos Letter

This week’s release of Jeff Bezos’ annual letter to shareholders was a newsmaking event, what with the Amazon.com (ticker: AMZN) CEO challenging the company’s retail rivals to raise pay and putting eBay (EBAY) in the spotlight. Shares of Amazon, recently about flat at $1,844.50, are up more than 20% in 2019. Bullish analyst Anthony Chukumba of Loop Capitalon Friday reiterated a Buy rating on the stock, as well as a $2,200 price target that is about 19% higher than current levels and above FactSet’s $2,128 analyst average. He cited three key items from Bezos’ letter:

Amazon Jumps Back Into Corporate Renewables Market

Amazon on Monday said it will buy power from three future wind projects, two of them in Europe and the third in the U.S., while signaling that more deals could be coming soon. The announcement marks a return to the corporate renewables market for one of the biggest buyers of years past. The tech giant will back 229 megawatts of new wind capacity from projects in Ireland, Sweden and California to serve Amazon Web Services’ fleet of data centers. The wind farms will be built over the next two years. A 91-megawatt wind farm will be built in Donegal, in the Republic of Ireland, while a similarly sized project will be built in Bäckhammar, Sweden — near the windy coast of Vänern, the largest lake in the European Union.

Amazon is introducing private investors to high-risk start-ups in a new pilot program

Amazon is testing a new way to bolster its relationship with start-ups and possibly bring in more capital to the ecosystem. The fledgling effort, known as the Amazon Web Services Pro-Rata Program, is designed to link private investors with companies that use AWS, as well as venture funds whose portfolios are filled with potential cloud customers. Amazon is not investing money through the program.The Pro-Rata program is being run by Brad Holden, a former partner at TomorrowVentures (founded by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt), and Jason Hunt, who are both part of AWS's business development team focused on angel and seed relationships, according to an email they sent to investors in January.

Now part of Amazon, Eero reaffirms commitment to customer privacy

Eero wants you to know it still cares about your privacy, regardless of who owns it.Amazon's acquisition of the five-year-old startup, which makes home Wi-Fi hardware, is complete, Eero CEO and co-founder Nick Weaver said Tuesday in a blog post. In the post, Weaver wrote extensively about Eero's promise to maintain customer privacy and trust under its new ownership."We want to reaffirm our commitment to your privacy head-on," he wrote "At eero, we have always believed everyone has a fundamental right to privacy, especially in their own homes, and we take this extremely seriously."An Amazon spokeswoman said in an email statement that the deal "changes nothing for customers, especially how we are treating their privacy and security."

Amazon stops ordering from many suppliers, pushing them to bear the risks instead

Amazon.com Inc. abruptly stopped buying products over the last two weeks from many of its wholesale vendors, encouraging them to instead sell their products directly to consumers on Amazon’s marketplace. It’s the company’s latest move to boost profits at its core e-commerce business, even if that means disrupting relationships with longtime suppliers and potentially limiting customers’ choices. Thousands of vendors are affected, according to estimates from consultants who help clients sell on Amazon.

With 2020 in Sight, de Blasio Turns Against Amazon web hosting

Amazon is rapidly expanding its air fleet to handle more of its own shipping

Amazon is becoming a player in the logistics and shipping industry.That's what analysts think about the recent expansion of Amazon Air to include 50 planes and several new regional hubs, including a $1.5 billion hub opening in northern Kentucky in 2021.

Feeling unwelcome, Amazon ditches plans for New York hub

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc abruptly scrapped plans to build a major outpost in New York that could have created 25,000 jobs, blaming opposition from local leaders upset by the nearly $3 billion in incentives promised by state and city politicians.The company said on Thursday it did not see consistently “positive, collaborative” relationships with state and local officials. Opponents of the project feared congestion and higher rents in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, and objected to handing billions in incentives to a company run by Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man.

Amazon warns it may rethink plans to open a Philly store if the city bans cashless retailers

Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. has warned Philadelphia officials behind closed doors that a proposal to ban so-called cashless stores would affect the company’s plans to open a brick-and-mortar location here, city officials said Thursday.Officials revealed Amazon’s warning the same day that City Council sent Mayor Jim Kenney a bill that seeks to protect the city’s poorest consumers, but is also supported by the “world’s largest” ATM operator and groups advocating for low-wage workers. The proposal passed by a 12-4 vote on a day when Amazon scrapped its plans for a second headquarters in New York City, citing local opposition.