Amazon Fire smartphone now available in Europe with O2 tie-up in the UK September 8, 2014 Amazon Fire phone, the internet retailer’s first smartphone, will go on sale in the UK on 30 September after launching in the US in June. Amazon has partnered with O2 to offer the phone exclusively on the network. It will also launch in Germany exclusively on Deutsche Telekom network. The handset is available to pre-order from [...]
Amazon hires Visa credit card’s Nick Talwar to expand lending business August 31, 2014 Amazon has hired Visa North America credit card boss Nick Talwar to expand Amazon Lending. When the e-commerce giant first set up the lending business three years ago, very little was said about it. There were no press releases or public announcements, and knowledge of it was limited to private invitations sent to a [...]
Amazon’s Twitch purchase heralds a new age of creative consumption August 28, 2014 It's enough to make an accountant develop a nervous one. This week Amazon snapped up Twitch, a video platform and community for computer gamers, paying the princely sum of $970m (£585m) in cash. That’s a lot of money for something many people have never heard of – more than three times the amount Amazon spent [...]
Amazon’s Twitch takeover puts tech deals at 14-year high August 26, 2014 Amazon's $970m (£585m) takeover of eSport video website Twitch on Monday pushed the value of global tech M&A (mergers and acquisitions) so far this year to $174bn, its highest level since 2000, according to industry data. Global tech M&A activity is up 54 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to [...]
Twitch – what is it and why has Amazon just spent nearly $1bn on it? August 26, 2014 Back in May the word was that Google was eyeing up games social platform Twitch, but last night Amazon emerged as the triumphant bidder, nearly four times what Jeff Bezos paid for The Washington Post. Just what is Twitch and why does everyone want a piece? Essentially, it's video-game voyeurism: Twitch is currently the centre of [...]
Amazon buys video site Twitch for close to $1bn August 25, 2014 Internet giant Amazon last night snapped up gamers’ video website Twitch for $970m (£585m). The service is just three years old, and is used by millions of gamers and viewers every month. In July 55m unique visitors watched 15bn minutes of videos – four-and-a-half hours on average. Amazon has a rapacious appetite for new tech [...]
eSports is Amazon’s big bet on the future – Bottom Line August 25, 2014 While eSports may look and sound like child’s play, it is in fact big business. Last year the industry attracted 71.5m online viewers worldwide, with Twitch being the destination of choice for over 75 per cent of viewers, and total prize money across eSport competitions reached $25m. While those viewer numbers are a drop in [...]
Amazon’s £6 card reader and mobile app signal retailer’s move to high street payments August 13, 2014 Amazon yesterday unveiled a $10 (£6) card reader and mobile app to allow high street businesses to accept card payments, marking the latest step by the online retail giant to expand its presence in the physical world. The move challenges a slew of rivals in the space, including startup Square, which popularised a payments dongle [...]
Watch: Jack Reacher author Lee Child on the Amazon row August 13, 2014 Jack Reacher author Lee Child appeared on Newsnight yesterday to explain why he and hundreds of other authors have spoken out against Amazon. The etail giant is in a stand-off over pricing with publishing group Hachette, which has the rights to authors as varied as JK Rowling (post-Harry Potter), Stephenie Meyer of Twilight fame, crime [...]
Amazon halts Disney orders of Maleficent and Captain America after price row August 10, 2014 Amazon halted pre-orders of a number of Disney movies on its US website yesterday in what appears to be another contract dispute, following a pricing spat with publisher Hachette Book Group. Last night physical copies of Disney titles such as Maleficent and Captain America: The Winter Soldier were unavailable for pre-order on Amazon.com. Amazon blocked [...]