Why Would Jeff Bezos Buy An Old Fashion Newspaper?

On Monday, it was reported that Jeff Bezos of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) fame, paid a reported $250 million in cash to purchase the Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) newspaper. I say, "congratulations Jeff," it was a brilliant strategic move on your part. Now it must be said that this was not Amazon purchasing the Washington Post, but rather Jeff Bezos personally purchasing this property. So you have to ask yourself, what would a savvy Internet guy want with a newspaper?

Here's my take on it, Amazon has become a juggernaut on the Internet in terms of Internet commerce. I use Amazon myself like millions of others and it is a great service. When you're looking for a product, it's easy to go to Amazon and forget most every other site on the Internet.

Somewhere along the line, there is going to be some politician who will say that Amazon is a monopoly and should be broken up, as it stifles competition. So what's the perfect defense and check mate for an attack on your biggest investment and Internet baby? To me, owning and controlling the most powerful newspaper in a politically-driven town like Washington D.C., could give him power not attainable through other avenues.

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Put the power of the Trade Triangles to work for you

So the question is, can Jeff Bezos work his same magic with the Washington Post? Just look back in history at how William Randolph Hearst controlled the news and the news media in America, and the power it gave him. Whoever controls the media, can have a huge influence on the sentiment and direction of the country. That I think, is the ultimate goal of Mr. Bezos.

I think Jeff Bezos' plan for the Washington Post is going to be very similar to the plan he has for Amazon. Forgo profits, and build until you eventually create unstoppable momentum and you become a king maker in the news industry.

Don't think for one moment that Amazon is not politically smart. A little over a week ago, employees of Amazon contributed $116,000 to the democratic party for President Obama to fly down to Chattanooga, Tennessee to be at the opening of one of their new distribution centers.

In today's video, I will be looking at the Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) and seeing how our Trade Triangles fared in trading this stock.

Have a great trading day,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-Creator, MarketClub

From Books to Everything Else

When Jeff Bezos was searching for a name for his new internet start-up back in 1994, he wanted something that was impressive and sounded big. You see, Jeff wanted to sell books at a discount on the Internet and size to Jeff was important. He believed that his small start-up in time, could effectively become a category killer for the likes of Barnes and Noble and Borders.

The name Jeff eventually decided on for his new start-up was Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), and like the mighty Amazon itself, whose mouth is growing an average of two meters every year, Jeff wanted volume. So what better name to choose since by volume, the Amazon River is the world’s largest river.

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So what are you waiting for? Let's get started right away!

From books to everything else, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has become a juggernaut in the marketplace and now dominates sales on the internet. Jeff had all the stars aligned with his new company, the right name, the right concept and the right timing back in 1995 when Amazon opened its website for business.

Now CEO Jeff Bezos was not looking for quick profits or to flip his company, rather Amazon's goal was to grow free cash flow, basically cash from operations less all other charges. That is the key distinction for Amazon and one that separates it from other Internet and earnings-driven companies. As one Wall Street-er said, "Earnings are an opinion; cash is a fact."

Kudos to you Jeff, and thank you for providing a great stock to trade with our Trade Triangles.

Today, we will be analyzing the stock of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) in detail. The video runs about 2 minutes.

Enjoy the video, and every success in your own trading.

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-Creator, MarketClub

Will Yahoo's Billion Dollar Bet Sink The Company?

On May 20th, Marissa Mayer, the recently installed CEO of Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), announced that Yahoo had acquired Tumblr, a micro blogging website for 1.1 billion dollars. This was her first major acquisition as the head honcho at Yahoo.

Make no mistake about it, this is a big bet for Yahoo. The question on every investors' mind is, will this acquisition work out for Yahoo?

Unlike Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Twitter, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), all of whom stand for something, Yahoo is the odd man out as it lacks an identity. For example, we think of Amazon as a shopping site, Twitter for instant messaging and Google for search, but what about Yahoo? What does Yahoo stand for?

Marissa Mayer's acquisition of Tumblr was meant to make a bold statement and jump start Yahoo in a new, and hopefully cool, direction. Reviews on the Tumblr acquisition so far have been mixed. Today, we are going to take an in-depth look into the stock of Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) and its previous failed acquisitions. Who remembers GeoCities, Broadcast, and Flickr? I'm going to carefully analyze Yahoo's price action and share with you some insight as to what I think is going to happen to this stock.

The initial feedback I received in a recent sneak preview of this video has been extremely positive, and in several cases it was described as an "eye opener" for many of these viewers. The video runs for about 6 1/2 minutes.

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I personally believe this video will give you a look into how the markets really work. After you watch the video, you can make up your own mind whether this approach would be useful for your own trading or not.

So what are you waiting for? Let's get started right away!

Enjoy the video, and every success in your own trading,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-Creator, MarketClub

Today's Video Update: Can We Trust This Market?

Hello traders everywhere! Adam Hewison here, President of INO.com and Co-creator of MarketClub, with your mid-day market update for Wednesday, the 24th of April.

Can We Trust This Market?
A number of years ago when Ben Bernanke took over the chairmanship of the Fed, little did anybody predict that he would be single-handedly supporting the entire stock market. I asked several colleagues of mine over the past few days, "what would happen should the quantitative easing that Ben put in place stop?" They all gave me the same answer, "the market would crash." That is not a particularly compelling reason to own stocks, in my opinion, if stocks are been artificially held up. I have said this before, the trend is your friend, and as far as the DOW is concerned, the trend remains positive.

What Now Apple?
Yesterday, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced their earnings and while there was some good news, there was also some bad news. The bad news is that their profit margins continue to shrink and that coupled with no new innovation coming out of Apple anytime soon, does not spell out a particularly rosy scenario for this stock. Continue reading "Today's Video Update: Can We Trust This Market?"