Remember that old Certs ad – “it’s two, two, two mints in one”? You could say something similar about Amazon.com. With both a big retailing operation and a growing business selling a software platform to other retailers, it’s become two, two, two companies in one. That’s rarely a good thing, either for a business’s investors or its managers. Maybe it’s time for Jeff Bezos to break Amazon in two, as I suggest in a new BusinessWeek Online column.
Very interesting – and a quick qn: do you think Amazon’s platform biz can thrive without the millions of visitors that visit Amazon? The split would certainly require the 2 companies to work very very closely together – and as Palm Source finds, that does not always work out.
“2 mints in one” was a Wrigleys ad, wasn’t it??
Great blog. Boy, have I got to re-think my IT carreer…