This case was prepared by Senior Lecturer Christopher Noe and Professor Joseph Weber. Research assistance was provided by Julia Cho.
Copyright © 2019, Christopher Noe and Joseph Weber. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license visit londonessays.com or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA.
17-183 Revised February 19, 2019
Amazon.com, Inc. Christopher Noe and Joseph Weber
On May 15, 2017, Amazon.com celebrated the 20th anniversary of its initial public offering (IPO).1 Over the preceding two decades, Amazon had grown from a small e-commerce startup to the fourth largest U.S. public company, trailing only Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent), and Microsoft.2 The company reached such a size, however, with little to show in terms of profitability. Amazon chose to invest in expansion and research and development with the idea that sacrificing profit in the short-term would allow the company to
maximize profit in the long-term.
Company Background
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos. Prior to starting Amazon, Bezos worked in New York as a vice president at D. E. Shaw & Co., a global investment management firm, but decided to quit his job and move to Seattle to take advantage of the incredible growth of the Internet. The Amazon website launched on July 16, 1995. Amazon began as an online bookstore, but the company had innovative strategies that set it apart from competitors. It offered discounts up to 30%, allowed customers to post their own book reviews on its website, and continually worked to improve the ease of placing orders with technological features like “1-Click” shopping.3 These strategies derived from Amazon’s customer-focused mission statement:
1 Dawn Kawamoto, “Amazon.com IPO Skyrockets,” CNET, May 15, 1997, londonessays.com (accessed August 2017). 2 Center for Research in Security Prices. 3 Richard L. Brandt, “Birth of a Salesman,” The Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2011.