Should Amazon.com split its technology business and retailing businesses?

[Kristijntje]

Renewed calls by various analysts for Amazon.com to split itself into separate retailing and technology services companies:

You can hear it on every earnings call. Wall Street's frustration with Amazon.com is growing, and recently, it's broken out into open insolence.

Two years of declining profits at the internet retail behemoth have left analysts wondering just when Amazon.com's technology magic is going to pay off...

...analysts are even questioning the fundamental proposition of internet retail, with Prudential's Mark Rowen asking -

"Why is it that we are not seeing efficiency if, in fact, the model is more efficient?"...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/18/...uld_split/

In an article I wrote last June for Business Week Online, I modestly proposed that Amazon split itself in two, separating the retailing operation from the technology services operation. I pointed out that the economics of those two businesses are very different, and that trying to run them within one company inevitably leads to management conflicts that can damage one or both businesses...

...Amazon's moves since then have only underscored the fundamental schism that runs through the company...

full article: http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/0...p#comments