Early Amazon investor Nick Hanauer disappointed Amazon isn’t more civically engaged

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Is Amazon.com doing enough to support its hometown? That question has been raised many times over the years, with local publications like The Stranger and The Seattle Times ripping the online retailer for essentially being a scrooge when it comes to corporate giving and engagement in Seattle. In a poll last year following The Seattle Times’ four-part… Read More…

Whoops! Book by Jeff Bezos’ wife delayed by Amazon logistics

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Amazon prides itself on having a top-notch infrastructure for getting products where they need to go, and quickly. But sometimes, there are hiccups, and as it turns out, being married to the company’s CEO doesn’t make someone immune from Murphy’s Law. Mackenzie Bezos, an award-winning novelist and the wife of Jeff Bezos, has a new… Read More…

Amazon opens doors on 3D printer storefront: Is this a sign of things to come?

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If a structural change to Amazon.com is any indication, the company is looking to take on the 3D printer scene. According to reporting from 3D printing enthusiast blog Personalize, the online retail giant has recently opened a 3D printer storefront for U.S. consumers. It’s a bit hard to find ordinarily–you have to look for the… Read More…

Amazon noticeably (and admirably?) absent from cyber-spying controversy

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The revelations about the U.S. government’s cyber-spying program this week centered on reports that the NSA and the FBI are routinely accessing data from major tech companies to feed intelligence operations, leveraging the fact that much of the world’s online traffic flows through domestic servers. The reports by the Washington Post and the Guardian implicated companies including Microsoft, Apple,… Read More…

Amazon knocks $20 off Kindle Fire HD for Father’s Day

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From now until June 8, Amazon is discounting its Kindle Fire HD tablets by $20 for a Father’s Day sale. You can get $20 off the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD ($199), the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ ($269), or the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G ($399) by entering in the code “DADSFIRE” at checkout. That’s the price of the tablets with the “special offers”… Read More…

Bezos to Amazon shareholders: It’s not only Day One, ‘the alarm clock hasn’t gone off yet’

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The official business at Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting at Seattle Center this morning was quick and to the point, as shareholders re-elected Amazon’s board and rejected a shareholder proposal asking for more transparency in the company’s “politically motivated spending.” Then Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took to the podium for a broad overview of the company’s… Read More…

Jeff Bezos grilled over violent games, movies during Amazon shareholder meeting

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Amazon just wrapped up its annual meeting of shareholders at Seattle Center, with Jeff Bezos giving a broad overview of the company’s business and fielding questions from shareholders. But the hot-button issue during the Q&A wasn’t profit margins or taxes — it was the company’s policies about sales of violent games and movies. Three shareholders… Read More…

Check out the Apollo F-1 moon rocket engines that Jeff Bezos helped salvage

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Back in March, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and his Bezos Expeditions team recovered significant pieces of two F-1 rocket engines that were used to launch rockets into space 40 years ago on the landmark Apollo missions, before plunging into the ocean. Bezos’ F-1 Recovery Project team brought the parts to Kansas and now, after two months… Read More…

Amazon beats profit expectations, tops 90,000 employees for first time

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Amazon this afternoon reported first-quarter profits of $82 million, or 18 cents a share, a decline of 37 percent from the same quarter a year ago but more than enough to exceed Wall Street’s expectations. That was despite the fact that the company’s sales were just a bit lighter than Wall Street had expected, rising 22… Read More…

Jeff Bezos-backed Remitly announces free money transfers to the Philippines

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Seattle startup Remitly just announced pricing for its new international money-transfer service to the Philippines, and customers are probably going to like the price. Money transfers of more than $100 are free — if you’re willing to wait three business days. If the money needs to be wired immediately, Remitly plans to charge a flat… Read More…

Henry Blodget’s Business Insider raises $5 million from Jeff Bezos and others

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Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is investing in Business Insider, the technology news operation led by former Wall Street investment banker Henry Blodget. Business Insider is raising $5 million in the round, with Blodget saying in a memo to staff that Bezos got interested in the business about a year ago over a dinner that they… Read More…

Future of Kindle? Amazon’s Bezos wants wireless power, remote processing for devices

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Want slimmer and lighter gadgets with amazing battery life? Jeff Bezos is right there with you — and he has a potential solution. A newly published patent application, listing the Amazon CEO as one of two inventors, describes the future of “remote displays” — in which the devices in our hands are reduced to mere… Read More…

Zuckerberg leads list of most-liked CEOs; Bezos’ approval rating soars and Ballmer is a no-show in top 50

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Do you like the job your boss is doing? If you work at Facebook, Amazon.com, Salesforce.com, EMC, SAP, Apple or Google, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. The CEOs of those tech titans each scored approval ratings above 90 percent in Glassdoor’s annual ranking of the top highest-rated CEOs. (Glassdoor bases its… Read More…

‘Bezos Beep’ could replace the smartphone bump for mobile content sharing

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Companies including Samsung have been promoting the practice of sharing content by bumping two devices together — transmitting photos, videos and other files from phone to phone using Near Field Communications. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has a different plan. Let’s call it the Bezos Beep. A newly published patent application, listing the Amazon CEO as sole… Read More…

Bill Gates ranks 2nd on Forbes billionaires list, Jeff Bezos rises up the charts

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Forbes is out today with its annual ranking of the world’s top billionaires, and Seattle tech titans are well represented yet again. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (net worth of $67 billion) finished in the second spot behind Mexican telecom, finance and retail investor Carlos Slim ($73 billion). But the more interesting story continues to be… Read More…

New Amazon Kindle ad supports same-sex marriage

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Amazon is out with a new Kindle ad, but the commercial’s most attention-getting message has little to do with the e-reader itself. Instead, it’s about gay marriage. Here’s what goes down in the 30-second spot: 1. Man on the beach has trouble using an iPad because of the glare. 2. Woman next to him, using a… Read More…

Why this guy hacked his Kindle to email Jeff Bezos

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As part of the terms of use for Amazon Kindle devices, users grant the company permission to collect data including their bookmarks and the last page they’ve read. This information helps the company synchronize the reading experience across devices. It also feeds into advanced analytics that give Amazon insights into reading patterns across its user… Read More…

Bezos on eBooks: Amazon is ‘now seeing the transition we’ve been expecting’

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Amazon.com posted a 45 percent decline in quarterly profits this afternoon, but Jeff Bezos says one of the company’s biggest benefits is paying off, as digital books and the company’s Kindle business show significantly greater momentum than traditional books. “We’re now seeing the transition we’ve been expecting,” said Bezos in the company’s earnings news release…. Read More…

POLL: Do you like Steve Ballmer’s new haircut?

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Breaking news: Steve Ballmer is bald. Just kidding about the breaking news part, unless you’re obsessed with keeping track of CEO’s and their haircuts. But for real, Microsoft’s CEO rocked a new haircut yesterday at the CES. In fact, he didn’t just get a haircut — he got all of his hairs cut. Linda Thomas… Read More…

Qliance raises $8M, opens new clinic on Expedia campus

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Qliance Medical, the Seattle health services startup backed by venture capitalist Nick Hanauer; Zillow Chairman Rich Barton; comedian Drew Carey; Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos; and others, has raised $8.6 million in venture capital financing, GeekWire has learned. Total funding in Qliance now stands at $27.6 million, with the 50-person company possibly raising a little more… Read More…