Just days after "Titanic" director James Cameron traveled to the bottom of the sea, another wealthy adventurer has announced a spectacular deep ocean discovery.
I recently interviewed more than 60 chief executives of very large global companies. Virtually all of them said that recruiting and promoting general managers with true leadership potential was the key ingredient to their organization's long-term success. Fair enough. But the CEOs were then quick to admit that this task is much easier said than done.
With the passing of Steve Jobs earlier this month, the tech industry lost one of its most revered icons. So where will the industry turn for inspiration now that Jobs is gone?
When Amazon launched the first ad-supported Kindle in May, it was something of an afterthought -- a cheaper alternative. But last week, Amazon made clear that ad-supported Kindles are the new standard.
Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos borrowed from Dr. Evil's master plan for the technology behind his newly announced Kindle Touch e-reader: It uses frickin' laser beams.
After months of speculation, it's here: Amazon's tablet, the $199 Kindle Fire, was unveiled Wednesday.
Amazon, the online retailer that ignited demand for electronic readers with its Kindle, might be entering the increasingly crowded tablet computer market.
E-books are revolutionizing the publishing industry and reader preferences, and Amazon might be in a unique position to hasten that change -- if they decide to start giving away their popular Kindle e-reader for free.
When customers are called users, customer service takes on a different meaning.
Call them the new hardcovers -- without the covers.
Amazon plans to unveil a thinner Kindle with a sharper picture in August, according to a Bloomberg News report on Saturday citing anonymous sources.
Shares of Amazon.com jumped in after-hours trading Thursday after the online retailer easily topped Wall Street's expectations during the fourth-quarter holiday shopping season.
On a bright May morning Jeffrey Bezos descended from atop Mount Seattle unto the press corps. He appeared casually on stage in a standing-room-only theater in New York City. Like another messenger of long ago, he carried a tablet. And he said unto the people: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited to introduce Kindle DX." Keyboards tapped. Shutters clicked. And as the Amazon founder and CEO turned a 9.7-inch display toward the masses, they saw an inscription: The New York Times.
The question of whether Amazon's Kindle will overhaul the news industry in the same way it has already begun to shake up book publishing may soon be answered.
The tech world loves a good prank. Today is the day when the world's propeller heads show us what they've cooked up in their secret April Fool's labs and it turns out that the funniest "gotchas" circulating online happen to come from companies that typically don't have much of a sense of humor at all.
Finally some good news, brought to you by Jeff Bezos and the gang at Amazon.com.
Amazon Inc. reported Thursday fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street expectations despite a difficult environment for retail sales.
It has the curves of a Lamborghini, looks like something an astronaut might take into space and weighs only 10.3 ounces.
Jeff Bezos has done it again. The Amazon CEO has created an MP3-download store that has quickly become the second largest digital music outlet after Apple's iTunes. Now he's struck an exclusive deal to build a similar store for the soon-to-launch MySpace Music.
For most of the past decade, the economy grew much stronger - but middle-class Americans had little to show for it.
In just three short weeks, we launch the next phase in Fortune's Brainstorm conference series, Brainstorm Tech. The original Brainstorm ran in Aspen from 2001 until 2006, and this one will retain the unique spirit of multidisciplinary inquiry that won it so many plaudits and fans, while digging even deeper into tech. Brainstorm Tech remains a wide-ranging convergence of people and ideas, with a deep cognizance of the impact of technology on what is happening in the world. I serve as program director and conference host. (The conference runs July 21-23 in Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco. For full details go here.)
Imagine a magic scroll, one that contains a myriad of stories and tells you a different one every night. One that fetches you the morning news, generates customized crossword-puzzles, keeps an eye on your favorite authors and an ear on the local grapevine. Imagine a living, breathing kiosk of brain-candy and a library of literature that's easy to read and rolls right up into the palm of your hand.
The helicopter was out of control and Jeff Bezos, the dotcom billionaire who founded Amazon, was pretty sure he was about to die. He was pinioned in the front passenger seat as the pilot frantically tried to thread the cherry-red copter through a field of trees.
Amazon.com reported fourth quarter sales that beat analysts' expectations, thanks to a strong holiday shopping season.
Who knew faster cellphone networks would result in a new form of book?
A new wave of web 2.0 software geeks believe in the former and are offering services in which experts recommend the best sites based on search terms the user provides. In addition to ChaCha's network of human guides (chacha.com), Mahalo (mahalo.com) creates hand-edited results pages for the most popular terms (Britney Spears was an early target). Eurekster (eurekster.com) allows users to build custom search portals that tap the expertise of online communities.
Amazon.com Inc. reported healthy increases in third-quarter sales and earnings that beat analysts' expectations fueled by competitive prices and free shipping.
There's only one other device out there right now as cool as the iPhone, and until recently it was impossible to get your hands on one. But now you can buy the greenest computer there is, which also happens to be a great way to use the Internet, a superb eBook reader, a tremendous tool for creativity and education, and the ultimate device for getting kids excited about computing. And it's beautiful to boot.
Online shopping recommendations are the Internet's answer to the old-fashioned up-sell. "You like that red Prada hobo bag? You'll love this black canvas number from Dolce & Gabbana." And apparently they work. Consumers last year spent $220 billion online, according to Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru, who estimates that recommendation systems can account for 10% to 30% of an online retailer's sales.
AmieStreet, a digital music site that prices songs of new artists according to their popularity, said on Monday that Amazon.com Inc. is leading a first round of investment in the start-up.
Online shopping recommendations are the Internet's answer to the old-fashioned upsell. "You like that red Prada hobo bag? You'll love this black canvas number from Dolce & Gabbana."
In the wake of Amazon.com's rousing first quarter--profits of $111 million, up 115% from last year--it seems relevant to look back on an article this writer reported seven years ago (Fortune, May 1...
Meet Business 2.0 Magazine's contrarians, 11 business leaders who achieved success by zigging while the rest of the world zagged.
Amazon.com, the world's largest e-tailer, is expanding a program designed to allow independent sellers - including those on eBay - to use its network of distribution centers to store and ship their products, according to a report published Friday.
A mere three years after Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne skimmed the edge of space to capture the $10-million Ansari X Prize, more than half a dozen companies are furiously building and testing spacecraft designed to take paying passengers on suborbital journeys and beyond.
Even for someone as optimistic as Jeff Bezos, 2006 is turning out to be a hellish year. The Amazon.com founder and e-commerce pioneer saw his second-quarter profit plunge 58 percent, due largely to...
The business of booking after-dinner speakers for corporate events was once straightforward: A few established agencies - like the Washington Speakers Bureau, whose clients include Colin Powell, Al...
Amazon.com Thursday said profits fell for the critical holiday selling season, but the numbers still beat Wall Street forecasts.
Mitch Free never expected to get a $25 million offer for his Atlanta company, MFG.com. It wasn't even for sale when a European software firm made a bid for it last year. "That was more money than ...
(FORTUNE Magazine) - Two heads are better than one. But what about four heads? Or ten? Why not 25? Picking the right size for a team depends on what the team needs to do. But researchers have also ...
SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) - Jeff Bezos hasn't had much luck finding a winning recipe for entering the Web-search market. His previous formula -- pluck an algorithms guru from Yahoo, add search results from Google, and stir up the Web world -- didn't attract many users. Meanwhile, Udi Manber, CEO of Amazon's search subsidiary, has decamped for Google. Now Bezos is giving it another go by partnering with Microsoft. While Amazon's move doesn't do much for Microsoft's paltry share of the search market, it's a symbolic victory for Microsoft, which failed in a bid late last year to power AOL's search results.
A note from Erick Schonfeld: After six years of writing Future Boy, I'm handing the reins to my colleague Chris Taylor to focus on features for the magazine and my B2Day blog, which you can also subscribe to by e-mail or RSS. Taylor shares my interest in the Internet and new media, but he's also interested in other boundaries of technology, like space, the subject of his first Future Boy column.
By now you'll know whether Elon Musk is the latest hero of the high frontier or still just the co-founder of PayPal. On Feb. 10, the day after this magazine went to press, Musk's latest company -- ...
Shares of Amazon.com tumbled Friday after a disappointing quarterly report prompted several Wall Street banks to cut their price targets.
Capping a tough week for tech stocks, Amazon.com's closely watched fourth-quarter earnings failed to impress Wall Street, even though its earnings beat the analysts' consensus estimate. Revenue of just under $3 billion fell about $100 million short of expectations.
Strong online holiday sales helped Amazon.com get what it wanted for Christmas this year: a new single-day sales record.
You may think of Amazon.com as the place to do your online holiday shopping, but CEO Jeff Bezos increasingly thinks of his company as a giant software platform. And like Google or Microsoft or Yahoo, one of his goals is to get other people to build Web sites and businesses on top of its technology.
Amazon.com made further moves into the digital book space Thursday, saying it would allow customers to buy online access to books.
Online retailer Amazon.com is preparing to offer a digital-music service, according to a published report.
News flash. People still buy stuff online. Apparently lots of it too.
Details of a new passenger-carrying rocket are emerging from Blue Origin, the Seattle-based company spearheaded by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. The first test flight of the rocket in unpiloted mode is slated for late next year.
The meeting had dragged on for more than an hour, and a restless Jeff Bezos had heard enough. Three years ago, in one of Amazon's Seattle offices, the CEO had rounded up 15 or so senior engineers a...
Over the past 25 years, technology was the industry of choice for many of the top business people, and no one more than Microsoft's Bill Gates exemplifies the explosion of that realm, according to a panel of experts CNN gathered to rank the top 25 business leaders of the past quarter-century.
Amazon.com Inc. posted a fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday that fell short of Wall Street estimates, but it logged better-than-expected sales for the period.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once famously called consistency "the hobgoblin of little minds." But we'd like to think that's because he never had the chance to meet the folks on the pages that follow—big br...
IT'S BEEN ONLY A FEW WEEKS SINCE Paul Allen and Burt Rutan took one giant step for space tourism and won the $10 million Ansari X Prize after sending a manned vehicle called SpaceShipOne into subor...
Bill Gates can now breathe a sigh of relief.
Did you know the Internet turns 35 today? Yep. Back in 1969 some folks at UCLA hooked together two computers and had them pass some data back and forth.
Jim Benson isn't the only computer entrepreneur to found a space company. Meet four other techies who have succumbed to the lure of the final frontier.
Like a phoenix, Amazon.com (AMZN, $45) has risen from the dot-com ashes. Shares of the Internet retailer have zoomed from a low of $6 during the 2001 tech meltdown to as much as $58 this past Janua...
Amazon.com Inc. Tuesday reported higher fourth-quarter profits that met Wall Street forecasts, boosted by stronger-than-expected sales growth.
JEFF BEZOS You don't go from obscurity to Time's person of the year in four years--Jeff Bezos made it in 1999--unless you're causing quite a stir. Nearly a decade since he started Internet retailin...
THE HEADLINES Internet Entrepreneurs Invest in Space-Exploration Ventures
Mr. Bezos, can you hold that bottle of water on your head so I can make sure I'm in focus?" "Mr. Bezos, when you jump, can you spread your arms and legs in the air?" "Mr. Bezos, while you're in the...
Most people face one or two make-or-break moments in a lifetime. But in the press, some folks are perennially pegged as on the verge of triumph or collapse. Here's the latest on four always-rans.
THE HEADLINES 1 Republicans Take Control of the Beltway
This year's stock market carnage has not only been depressing but also bizarre. Warren Buffett is buying telecom stocks. SEC chairman Harvey Pitt wants a raise. And--get this--the best-performing s...
In late January, when Amazon announced it had made a profit in the fourth quarter of 2001, the press erupted in a chorus of hallelujahs. Wall Street analysts, many of whom had grown increasingly sk...
Last year during an MSNBC program filmed at Stanford University, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos was asked a question by a shareholder in the audience: "Can you tell me what it is exactly that I own?" In...
It was weird enough when Jeff Bezos popped up in ads for Taco Bell. But when Bill Gates recently made a special guest appearance on Frasier, it kept us up at night. What's to stop all of corporate ...
What happens when a small book publisher's first release happens to be Jeff Bezos' favorite kids' book? Or when the baseball bat that a clever carpenter whittles in his garage turns out to be Barry...
Ex-Amazon employee Mike Daisey (right) waited the requisite year for his nondisclosure agreement to expire before skewering the cult--er, culture--Jeff Bezos created. His one-man show, 21 Dog Years...
Here's fair warning: I'm going to say nice things about Amazon.com. The carnage has gotten bad enough that I've heard people say that only one Net business will be left standing--eBay. In other wor...
A ton of money sounds like an incomprehensible amount--more than Jeff Bezos lost all day!--but how much is 2,000 pounds really worth? Naturally the answer depends on the kind of money you're weighi...
Back in November, just as its crucial Christmas season was getting under way, Amazon.com invited reporters to its gussied-up warehouse in Fernley, Nev. We'd see the e-tailer's new distribution syst...
A year ago, getting Jeff Bezos to talk about making money was a bit like getting Bill Clinton to define sex. Last fall, when asked when he thought Amazon.com would turn a profit, he hemmed, hawed, ...
Maybe I was just naive.
Robert Gordon, a professor of social sciences at Northwestern University, recently penned a study that questions whether the Internet deserves a place alongside the great innovations of the Industr...
Your startup is gasping for air, and there's not an angel investor in sight. Don't panic. Clip and save these simple steps, and you may yet be able to bring your venture back from the brink of bank...
Just 15 months ago Joseph Galli Jr. was near the top of every executive recruiter's Most Wanted list. In 19 years the marketing star had risen to the de facto No. 2 spot at Black & Decker--as high ...
It was billed as an e-commerce boot camp--a two-day immersion in the lessons of the New Economy. About 50 people attended the event, which was held in San Francisco in late February and was organiz...
In the annals of Internet shamelessNess, there are few more egregious examples of Net moguls scrambling to make a quick buck at the expense of ordinary investors than that of Philip Kives, the long...
Last summer Joe Galli played the tug of war between the old economy and the new--and won big. In June, Galli, who had fled Black & Decker after having clashed with CEO Nolan Archibald and lost the ...
These are interesting times. And no, we don't consider that a curse. The business world that FORTUNE writes about has in recent years become strikingly less stodgy, less predictable, and more reple...
Warren Buffett doesn't mention the Internet on these pages. But he does talk about two other transforming industries that failed to reward investors over time: autos and aviation. Only a fool would...
On the morning of Sept. 28, Amazon.com announced that on the morning of Sept. 29 it planned to make an "announcement significantly affecting the world of e-commerce." From Wall Street to Silicon Va...
Lest you think the Internet spawned this consumer-friendly age of direct, hassle-free retailing, consider the legendary General Robert Wood. Director of construction for the Panama Canal, he was th...
Back in 1994, when Jeff Bezos chucked his job at hedge fund D.E. Shaw in New York City and headed west to open the Web store that would become Amazon.com, he hadn't thought through all the details....
Internet time--no exaggeration, this stuff moves so fast, you gotta figure out a way to clone yourself. We're doing a deal a minute--raising money, signing affiliates, negotiating content, hiring p...
Can we talk? This Internet thing has gotten crazy. Unknown little companies go public and bam!, their share prices shoot up like starbursts. Whoever heard of eBay or Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch ...
Earlier this year Jeff Bezos, billionaire founder of Amazon.com, had a dilemma. He could join forces with Bertelsmann AG to expand his business. Or he could go it alone, knowing full well that the ...
July's rally around Internet stocks added two new names--Jerry Yang and David Filo--to America's growing list of Gen X billionaires.
No company has done more to show how the Web overturns conventional assumptions about distribution than Amazon.com. After just two years, this Web pioneer (www.amazon.com) is selling $110-million-a...
Back in 1994, Jeff Bezos was a young senior vice president on the rise at a thriving Wall Street hedge fund. But when the explosive growth of the World Wide Web caught his eye, he saw an even bigge...
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