Amazon's Merging & Acquiring Strategy

Similarly to how strategic alliances have played an integral role in Amazon’s success, a lot of those strategic alliances developed past equitable relationships and into mergers and acquisitions which has only further boosted Amazon’s successes.  Chapter 14 notes that mergers and acquisitions enable a firm to exploit competitive opportunities and neutralize threats while reducing costs or increasing revenue.  Any merger or acquisition exemplifying these qualities would have economic value to the original firm.  An example of Amazon exploiting an opportunity and leveraging to the point of economic value was actually referenced in the last blog post when referring to Amazon’s relationship with Ring, the home security camera company.  Amazon invested millions of dollars into this identified opportunity and once Amazon was able to see how much their relationship was benefitting them, they wanted the whole pie instead of just a piece. 

Additionally, Chapter 14 outlines how to implement a merger or acquisition and I think that is something that Amazon is able to do almost better than anyone else in the competitive landscape right now.  At times, Amazon utilizes the strategic alliance time period to understand the aligning company from the inside out to truly gain information on how to implement this business’s operations to theirs in the near future. 

I believe Amazon truly sees themselves as a company relevant to each and every aspect of a consumer’s lifestyle and their merger and acquisition strategy seems to align with this belief as well.  While it’s important for Amazon to merge or acquire with companies that have similar operations and core competencies as them, it’s equally important for them to acquire companies outside the scope of what’s expected from them.  For example, earlier in this blog we discussed Amazon’s relationship with Whole Foods.  While this relationship and eventual acquisition may not have made complete sense to the average consumer, Amazon was taking one more step towards its goal of full integration into our everyday lives by now being a part of our grocery shopping experience.

Amazon wants you to be somewhat perplexed by their acquisition choices.  These innovative strategies keep their consumers on their toes and thinking.  While we’re left thinking, Amazon is already on to its next step to taking over the world one acquisition at a time.