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Amazon Will Buy Target This Year, Gene Munster Predicts
- anderworx 9y agoMaybe then I'll get to use ApplePay at Target.
- Talyen42 9y agowhat's with all these analysts predicting mega mergers today? > "Citi analysts see 40% chance Apple will buy Netflix" Yeah, right. It's baseless cable news headline-bait garbage.
- bluetwo 9y agoSlow news day.
- randomerr 9y agoIt is the first real news day since the holiday.
- netcraft 9y agoCould it be trial balloons? see how regulators and politicians react to gauge how likely it is to succeed or if there is a big pushback?
- empath75 9y agoI actually think an Apple/Netflix merger makes a lot of sense. Apple sucks at online services and netflix could use the deep pockets.
- staplers 9y agoApple sucks at online services That's exactly why this doesn't make sense for Netflix. They'd be much better off without Apple.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoThere's no reason that Apple couldn't build a Netflix competitor and then ban Netflix from its mobile device platforms.
- empath75 9y agoOther than the fact that every attempt apple has made at a cloud service has been terrible.
- lev99 9y agoAm I wrong, or are iCloud and Apple Music both better than terrible cloud services?
- cjoy 9y agoI would say you are wrong. I have used both and the experience was always worse compared to that of competitors, despite their advantage of a) deep hardware integration b) deep platform integration (so much, that it feels like effort is required to not use the services). I guess it depends on what your bar is for “better than terrible”, but when I look at the richest company in tech that also happens to own the entire stack in play, then “better than terrible” is not remotely good enough.
- lev99 9y agoApple Music is my favorite. I like being able to buy things not included in streaming on iTunes or rip music from other sources and have it integrate into the ui. Last time I checked spotify is missing a clean way to integrate music it's streaming service is missing. iCloud seems to be on par or better than one drive. I'm not sure who else is it's competitor. Dropbox has better syncing with multiple users and g-suite has better online editing and sharing tools. Their core stories is different than iCloud's, which is a online backup of personal documents. Maybe Google Drive has good desktop apps and works for Android users.
- booleandilemma 9y ago
- dragonwriter 9y agoAn Apple/Netflix merger makes little sense; Apple is pretty clearly not interested in online services not tied into it's hardware platforms, and it's already got a video service tied into it's ecosystem. I suppose making Netflix's existing original content Apple-exclusive would have some value to Apple, but not enough to justify purchasing Netflix.
- zodPod 9y agoI always got the impression that Netflix's pockets were large anyway. I mean, a huge portion of their content has become self produced and the content is better than a lot of B level movies that I've seen. I assumed funding themselves making bad ass content was an indication that they had enough money that they were just like "Fine. We'll make it ourselves." Kind of along the same vein as PornHub being rumored to make sense8 season 3. I am not purporting to have any knowledge that was just always my assumption.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago1. Buy stock/derivatives in a large company that could plausibly purchase another large company. 2. Announce rumours of merger/acquisition. 3. Stock price rises, sell stock/derivatives at a profit.
- athenot 9y agoUmm, isn't that highly illegal? If you make a good profit and it can be traced to your rumor, I don't think the SEC finds that very funny.
- jhwang5 9y agoTrue, but as you can see from SEC's stance of pump and dump schemes on altcoins, there are ways of blurring the lines of legality.
- lev99 9y agoI am also under the impression not many people get caught doing a pump and dump.
- runako 9y agoI'm not an expert at this! But it would seem a fairly straightforward way to profit without directly trafficking in securities linked to either purchaser or acquirer would be to instead use related company securities instead. Ex: rumor is Amazon will buy Target. Buy securities on a basket of retail, ex-Target, with similarities to Target.
- fatjokes 9y agoYeah, IANAL, but that sounds like a textbook pump-and-dump.
- rwc 9y agoThis is exactly what Jim Cramer did
- Spooky23 9y agoThe tax law changes are going to liberate billions of dollars stuck overseas. They need to chase returns with that money. We’re heading into a historic cycle of mergers.
- SimbaOnSteroids 9y agoI thought the Apple acquires Netflix rumor was old. They were also looking at acquiring Disney and some others as well, according to the rumor.
- jandrese 9y agoThe "Apple buys Disney" seemed more like people just dreaming up what they would do with umpteen trillion dollars and making a blog post out of it. Apple buying Netflix makes slightly more sense given that their own streaming video offerings are not exactly taking the world by storm. I have no idea what they would do with Netflix after they bought them though. Apple's STB offerings already have a Netflix app I'm sure.
- SimbaOnSteroids 9y agoThey could let them keep doing they're thing as they seem to be a company that seems to know how to run themselves, also Netflix could provide a massive amount of 'free' product placement for apple products.
- jandrese 9y agoLike every Netflix show now has the main characters wearing iWatches and talking on the iPhones? I'm also not sold on "We bought you out, now keep doing what you were doing before." What's the point of spending all of that money if you're not going to meddle? Netflix's paltry profits can't be all that enticing to Apple.
- SimbaOnSteroids 9y agoBlack Mirror Season 4: maybe a spoiler? In season 4 of Black Mirror, every branded piece of tech was Apple. That's just an example. There was an instance where the Apple logo was featured fully on the screen for a fraction of a second. An entire episode leveraged the creepy factor of Boston Dynamics. This obviously an extreme example but imagine every Netflix show is wall to wall Apple products. In the age of chord cutters this becomes a rather powerful tool to have.
- lerie82 9y agoDidn't we hear something about this already last year?
- karlshea 9y agoThis has been going around the Minneapolis subreddit and development forums in the last week or so, with a lot of doom and gloom about one of our biggest HQs moving out of the city. I guess I could see why Amazon would want to do it, but I'm also a little torn on what it would do locally if Amazon didn't end up locating HQ2 here while pulling Target HQ somewhere else. On the other hand, Loup Ventures is also based here, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is just Gene Munster trying to get press by stirring up shit.
- wonder_bread 9y agoTypical click-bait; An extremely bold prediction with an article that takes less than two minutes to read with a re-direct to another Bloomberg article about a less-sexy potential Amazon acquisition.
- dboreham 9y agoI don't know anything about retail but I'd have thought they were more likely to buy Kohls: Target seems pretty successful at what they do hence expensive, while Kohls seems sort of directionless but they have stores most places. They also have an arrangement already with Amazon for BnM returns.
- athenot 9y agoI was in Whole Foods yesterday and was half-expecting to see USB cables for sale between the tomatoes and the oranges—the real-world version of Amazon's product recommendations... :) But then that got me thinking that Whole Foods just might be their first foray into retail and I could see them making other retail acquisitions in various niches to eventually cover a wide spectrum of goods. Target seems more questionable as this would duplicate the logistic systems they already have.
- el_benhameen 9y agoI think the real-world version of Amazon’s product recommendations would be a man offering you 30 more varieties of apples after you put a Fuji in your basket.
- phamilton 9y agoHere's what they currently do https://www.amazon.com/produce-aisle-Fuji-Apple-Large/dp/B001W3JEKG/ref=sr_1_3_a_f_it https://www.amazon.com/produce-aisle-Fuji-Apple-Large/dp/B00...
- code_duck 9y agoThat seems to be standard with automated product recommendations. I recently purchased a coffee maker for my girlfriend. My Facebook account has become linked my credit card account, somehow, so Facebook has started showing me advertisements for the manufacturer of the coffee maker. There are at least a few faulty assumptions at work there.
- dave5104 9y agoJust in case you want to buy another! /s Always thought those types of ads were odd. I just bought the item you're advertising to me--and in most cases, why would I buy another one so soon? In your case, I'm surprised it's not smart enough to say coffee maker purchased, how about we show some coffee bean ads? (And even in that case, you might make the argument that it'd be a second gift for your girlfriend.)
- 9y ago
- mabbo 9y agoFor what purpose? Amazon's goal is to kill off traditional retail, as far as I can tell. Big box stores like Target are failing because their business model can't compete. Amazon already bought Whole Foods, which gives them a large enough physical presence to do whatever it is they're going to do with it. Integrating that business with the rest of Amazon will already take years- why complicate it further? My guess? Gene Munster owns some stocks in Target and wants to offload them at a price slightly higher than what it's currently at.
- BlackjackCF 9y agoSeems like it. Because Target is an expensive and nonsensical acquisition for Amazon. Also, even if it were a real possibility - I really hope not. We don't need more monopolies.
- baldfat 9y agoThat is the only thing people are hold on for this not happening. The politics of this merger is the only thing possibly stopping this.
- djsumdog 9y agoI stopped shopping at Wal-Mart back around 2009 and stopped buying from Amazon around 2012. I don't like support those models and I hate how so much in the tech world is dependent on Amazon. There should be more providers people are willing to use. It saddened me when Amazon absorbed Whole Foods. I still shop there because I like the breakfast bar, and there's a limit on what we can actually do as consumers. I realize it's all symbolic as you can't actually "vote with your dollars" as the libertarians would have you believe. But still, I hope this is all Munster vaporware blowing out his ass. I'm sure there'd be serious FTC issues with a merger that large. Then again, the FCC did just ditch network neutrality and both companies are large enough they can probably lobby whoever they want to make such a transaction go through.
- SubiculumCode 9y agoBreakfast pizza. Genuine trigger food of the Gods. I'm glad the Whole Foods next door closed.
- debt 9y agoIt makes sense in a way. Retail is very similar to record companies or the movie industry. They've failed to innovate solely because they got lazy. They took for granted their position in the market. A good position too. I mean, if you make believe the internet isn't a threat, which top business people most likely did, then I can easily see brick-and-mortar-rules-all mentality lulling top execs to sleep. Meanwhile, Amazon etc took over from a completely different angle, utilizing on-demand and internet tech. An acquisition from traditional retailers may be appealing.
- randomerr 9y agoThis actually gives Amazon a backdoor entrance to CVS/Caremark medication distribution. You see CVS has been slowing down building new free standing locations because they've taken over all of Target's pharmacy. If Amazon does actually buy Target I would look at CVS start delivering prescriptions and equipment directly to homes via Amazon's distribution system. This is yet another reason not to go to a competitor. I would also look at all Targets to become order pick-ups for rural and high crime areas.
- gmoore 9y agoexcellent insight - access to CVS would be huge for them
- vidanay 9y agoEspecially considering this news https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/amazon-holding-exploratory-talks-with-generic-drug-makers.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/amazon-holding-exploratory-t...
- ForRealsies 9y agoThere's no way such easy access to prescription drugs could ever go wrong.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- thecosas 9y agoCVS already has their own home delivery which I'm guessing makes this good for both Amazon and CVS.
- zodPod 9y agoDamn! That's a pretty big detail! There was talk a while back of Amazon getting into the pharmacy biz anyway. I wonder if that wouldn't be more draw to make this deal happen.
- 9y ago
- pizzaknife 9y agoIf it takes drones to make brick and mortar restrooms not excessively laden with feces... then i welcome our new masters
- throwaway287391 9y agoHaving spent a terrible summer working at Target as a cart attendant, I can explain at least part of the reason why their restrooms are gross. The job of cleaning the restrooms, as well as every other awful job that nobody wants to do, is given to "cart attendants", who applied thinking they'll just be pushing carts around all day and don't find out about these "side tasks" until their first day on the job. So these side tasks often go neglected out of spite and a lack of willingness to deal with that crap (figuratively and literally) for just above minimum wage. Why a gigantic store like a Super Target wouldn't hire a separate person as a "custodian" or "janitor" for such things is beyond me.
- s0rce 9y agoMy experience with Target restrooms has been mostly positive. They also tend to be easily visible, near the entrance and signed, unlike many other big box stores where you have to ask someone because its impossible to find the restroom.
- mikehines 9y agoThis prediction is as accurate as "Apple Will Buy Netflix This Year".
- jonknee 9y agoIf Amazon is going to make a high dollar retail acquisition, I think Costco makes a lot more sense than Target. True warehouse stores that could be used for distribution, high income customers who don't mind paying a subscription fee and it is already headquartered in the Seattle area.
- burntcookie90 9y agoi want this just to see how the company cultures would clash...
- hkmurakami 9y agoThat's a good point. They treat their retail/warehouse employees very differently.
- cjf4 9y agoCostco would be almost 3 times the cost, using market cap as a basis.
- justherefortart 9y agoMuch less coverage as well. Not to mention different philosophies.
- djsumdog 9y agoAnd considering Costco's international presence and their emphasis on employee treatment, I doubt they'd even consider selling to Amazon.
- jonknee 9y agoThat's not how it works with public companies. Management can refuse an offer, but the shareholders are the ones who really get to decide and Costco is majority owned by institutional investors. If the numbers look good there is nothing management can do.
- rch 9y agoI'd expect someone other than Amazon to buy Target (if anyone does), and stories like this will make the price seem more justifiable as a defensive move.
- bob_theslob646 9y agoGene Munster clearly does not understand how Amazon works. They dominate on efficiency which comes with scale. I do not think they want to the brick and mortar route, but could be wrong. His analysis is flawed unless they can pick up Target cheaper than they would be able to custom fit/design their own stores. I think they would want to own the least amount possible, but they may use stores as storage units if they decide to get into the logistics game. The Commercial Real Estate in the Retail sector is getting whacked. (In english, it is getting cheap as real estate owners are willing to accept less rather than let a huge building go vacant and receive no income.) With that being said, they will drop a tenant if the likes of Amazon came knocking. The only issue is the leverage that Amazon has may or may not be beneficial for the owner of the real estate. (http://www.businessinsider.com/store-closures-in-2018-will-eclipse-2017-2018-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/store-closures-in-2018-will-e...) (https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/12/20/here-26-retailers-and-apparel-companies-most-risk-2018/950328001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/12/20/here-26-reta...) With interest rates rising in the U.S, it will put more pressure on the retail sector for those whose leases are tied to expensive financing and did not lock in lease/rates. With all this being said, I see this as very unlikely.
- dang 9y agoMaybe so, but from a submission quality perspective we all gain by waiting till these things actually happen. Most don't.