Amazon made a surprise move this week: A new partnership with longtime retail rival, Best Buy. The companies are partnering on a new Smart TV that will run Amazon’s Fire TV software and will also establish a Best Buy channel on Amazon’s e-commerce platform. Despite the huge success of online retailers like Amazon, it seems the age of the retail store is far from over.
Plus, Amazon finally announced a previously secret statistic this week. The company has more than 100 million Prime members across the world, and counting.
Plus, we go behind the scenes of the first-ever shareholder meeting for American taxpayers, organized by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Best known for his time in tech and as the owner of the L.A. Clippers, Ballmer is also the head of USAFacts, a nonprofit that aims to inform political discourse by using hard facts.
On the Random Channel: There’s a new King of Kong — Donkey Kong, that is.
Listen to the full episode of the Week In Geek in the player below, or subscribe to the GeekWire podcast on your favorite podcast app.
This week’s stories:
- Amazon and Best Buy, better together? Smart TV deal is online giant’s latest move into physical retail
- Amazon reveals Prime number for the first time: 100M members globally and counting
- Interview: Why former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is holding a ‘shareholder meeting’ for America
- Watch: Live from ‘America’s Shareholder Meeting’ with Steve Ballmer and USAFacts
- Video: Donkey Kong kingpin fires back at allegations he cheated to get high scores
