Amazon on the Launch Pad: Beyond Antitrust and into the Next Mammoth Growth Phase
Why Amazon Is Different
Books and E-Books
Amazon 5.0
Amazon Primed
Summary
Quotes of the Week
Upgrades
The INVNT/IP Digest
Takeout Window
Just Getting Started: Amazin’ on the Launch Pad
Ethermail
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Over the past week, a sense of gloom has been building on Wall Street on the subject of big tech companies. The reasoning is simple: the Trump administration seems keen to pursue some sort of antitrust campaign against the biggest US tech companies, perhaps in the vein of the European Union’s strategy of frequently fining the largest firms. Why the gloom? When Donald Trump appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday, he said he believed that Facebook, Amazon, and Google worked against him during the 2016 election. He went on to state that when it comes to European fines for these firms,
… we should be doing what they’re doing. They think there’s a monopoly, but I’m not sure that they think that – they just figure this is easy money. We’ll sue Apple for $7 billion, and we’ll make a settlement or win the case. So I think it is a bad situation, but obviously there is something going on in terms of monopoly.
Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday in its active antitrust investigation into big tech firms, specifically citing Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple as companies of interest. The bipartisan comments that emerged would certainly look unsettling if you were reading the news from your desk at one of these firms.
Unsurprisingly, the markets didn’t react well to the sound of a presidential grudge, backed by a bipartisan congressional investigation, against the tech giants. The volatility has persisted since May, with all four companies trading down again sharply over the past few days on the opening of the House investigation:
As the investigation progresses and more becomes clear, it’s likely that all four companies will continue to see a rocky road ahead for share prices. The focus of this Global Report, however, is more specific.
