Tag Archives: amzn

Amazon.com Shutters Flash-Sale Fashion Site MyHabit

E-commerce leader  Amazon.com ( AMZN ) is shutting down fashion flash sale e-tail website Myhabit.com, first reported by  Women’s Wear Daily  and confirmed by Amazon. The website’s employees were told Thursday morning that the site would shut down at the end of May, WWD reported. In a statement, Amazon said, “Fashion is one of Amazon’s fastest-growing categories. As we continue to increase our breadth of selection and improve the customer experience on Amazon.com, we have decided to simplify our offering and will be closing MyHabit at the end of May. “Our customers can now shop from Amazon Fashion’s incredible assortment of brands across clothing, shoes and accessories — backed by award-winning service, free shipping and returns, and exclusive benefits for Prime members.” Analysts have told IBD that apparel has not been a strong category that Amazon. Alibaba ( BABA )-backed Shoprunner — an e-tail site — has told IBD that one of the ways to compete with Amazon.com’s market dominance is to find categories where the firm is not strong. In-season, branded apparel is one such category, Shoprunner spokespersons said. Amazon.com stock fell a fraction Thursday, to 631. The company has a good IBD Composite Rating of 85, where 99 is the highest. The IBD Leaderboard stock is 4.6% extended, and thus at the high end of the buy range, from a cup-with-handle breakout at a 603.34 buy point, and is near a secondary buy point, at 638.16.

Amazon Tap Casts Apple Suppliers; Texas Instruments Leads Echo Dot

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) tapped Texas Instruments ( TXN ) to lead its “hockey-puck-sized” Echo Dot Alexa-infused speaker, and incorporated Apple ( AAPL ) suppliers Broadcom ( AVGO ) and NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) in its portable Tap stereo, iFixit teardowns show. But the teardowns did little to help chipmakers Thursday on Wall Street. Chip stocks were broadly down in afternoon trading on the stock market today , in conjunction with fractional dips for the major indexes. Texas Instruments won five chips — including a digital media processor —  inside the Echo Dot , but that total was skimmed down from eight chips inside the larger Echo . Also, Samsung succeeded SanDisk ( SNDK ) as the flash memory supplier. Echo Dot also features a DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) chip from Micron Technology ( MU ), apparently replacing a Samsung RAM chip in the Echo. Qualcomm ( QCOM ) re-won the Bluetooth function from the Echo. The smaller Echo Dot earned a six out of a best-possible 10 in its repairability rating, dropping from seven in the earlier Echo iteration. Amazon’s Tap won a seven out of 10. It’s Amazon’s first Alexa-equipped portable speaker vs. the Echo Dot and Echo, according to iFixit. Maxim Integrated Products ( MXIM ) topped the Tap with two chips — an audio codec and a power management chip. Texas Instruments supplied an amplifier. Apple suppliers Broadcom and NXP won a chip apiece — WiFi/Bluetooth and an applications processor, respectively. The device is powered by a lithium-ion cell, such as those used in Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) vehicles, iFixit notes. It provides for nine hours of music playback, according to Amazon, vs. the iPhone 6S Plus, which has “a battery with a similar output for a radically different job.”

Apple, Alphabet Cut Lobbying Spend As Facebook Pumps It Up: Report

Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google, Apple ( AAPL ) and Comcast ( CMCSA ) have slashed spending on D.C. lobbying, according to a report Thursday from Consumer Watchdog. Still, Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson said in a statement, “It’s important to understand just how much money these companies are throwing around in Washington to buy the policies they want. Policymaking is now all about big bucks, not big ideas.” In Q1, Google slashed spending on lobbying by 25.5% to $3.80 million, the consumer group said. AT&T ( T ) had the highest lobbying outlay, at $4.48 million, among the group of 16 tech and communications companies that Consumer Watchdog monitored. AT&T rival Verizon ( VZ ) spent $3.59 million, up 7.2%. Consumer Watchdog based its report on new disclosure reports from the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Social networking leader  Facebook ( FB ), which has been increasing its Washington presence, spent $2.78 million, up 13.9% year over year. Microsoft ( MSFT ) also topped $2 million in lobbying spending, Consumer Watchdog said. Microsoft reported expenditures of $2.02 million, a 6.9% increase. Lobbying spending jumped 39% at Amazon.com ( AMZN ), to $ 2.65 million, marking the fourth consecutive quarter that the e-commerce leader’s spending topped $2 million, the disclosure records show. Apple’s spending fell 8.9%  to $1.13 million while spending by Yahoo ( YHOO ) dipped 5.5% to $690,000. Cable firm Comcast ( CMCSA ) spent $3.72 million, a 19.5% decrease. Digital Advertising Rising, Helped By Presidential Election Research group eMarketer said on Thursday that spending on paid media worldwide will climb 5.7% in 2016 to $542.55 billion, propelled by increased investments in digital advertising. While down from eMarketer’s previous forecast, the amount still represents accelerated growth compared with 2015, when spending on paid media worldwide rose 5%. Major events including the U.S. presidential election and the Rio Summer Olympics will contribute to rising ad spending, eMarketer said. While TV remains a dominant ad spending destination, ad spend on digital channels is showing the fastest increase year over year, eMarketer said. In the U.S., political ad spending on digital this year is estimated to nearly triple its rate of spending from 2014, says eMarketer, which adds that Nomura Securites estimates that digital will capture 9.8% of total U.S. political ad spending share this year, up from a 3.6% share in 2014. Broadcast TV will see a 59.4% share this year compared with a 61.3% share in 2014. In total, political advertising is expected to reach $10.2 billion this year, up from $7.49 billion in 2014 and $8.81 billion in 2012.