>The economies in manufacturing are coming from ERP software
Good point. It's no longer 9-figure proposition, probably 8-figure to create the large system of distribution. Depending completely on how smart they are. They've got the WMT guys, and the CFO is purported to be a wizard. The smart thing to do is to find a way to lease excess capacity until needed and take over the world incrementally, on a pay-as-you-go basis. I do that in real estate, whenever I can (not the world, just a building at a time, because I don't have monopoly money!). That said, I hope they've used their monopoly money while they can. Next week could be brutal, but I hope what we see is evidence that they are at least somewhat in control of the wonderful chaos and synergy that they are creating. I love the company (not the stock) because it's one of the few that absolutely has to generalize itself into a broad internet commerce business, and has to discover the maximum efficiency models on the net, to survive. AOL, MSFT, and CSCO have franchises, but AMZN has nothing but innovation to support itself, and the moxie to convince itself it has to go into everybody's business. It'll be fun to watch. |
