With Amazon Deal, AOL Remains King of the Jungle
America Online is staking out its turf.
Monday's plan to sink $100 million into Amazon.com (AMZN Quote) illustrates how the nation's biggest online service provider continues to expand its reach, though perhaps with a different strategy in mind.
The strategic shift at the AOL unit of AOL Time Warner (AOL Quote) is this, says one analyst: While past investments focused on capital appreciation, recent transactions seem to establish a claim on various technologies and services.
The Amazon investment, linked to an alliance in which Amazon will provide technology for Shop@AOL and other AOL shopping services, "marks AOL's territory," says Jordan Rohan, media analyst at Wit SoundView. "Amazon becomes a close partner of AOL," he says. Now, as a result, Amazon "really can't become a close partner of Yahoo! (YHOO Quote) or a close partner of [Microsoft's (MSFT Quote)] MSN to the same degree," Rohan says. ...
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