
The real reason behind Amazon's booming stock price - rbanffy
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/12/24/the-real-reason-behind-amazons-booming-stock-price/
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refurb
Anyone else notice higher prices at Amazon?

I just recently moved and purchased a number of items: space heater, ladder,
hand vacuum, etc. I checked Amazon and prices were 15-25% higher than the big
box stores (Home Depot). All in all, i probably saved $50 on $200 worth of
stuff by NOT shopping at Amazon!

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axaxs
Yep. Free shipping is not free shipping when you move the cost to the items. 2
day shipping is convenient, but not as convenient as driving 10 minutes down
the road. For me, even 2 day shipping is an inconvenience. If i'm not saving a
good deal of money, I'm not going to use it. Compound that with the fact that
they now charge sales tax in my state, and I can honestly say I don't order
too much from them anymore.

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dm2
The worst is the UPS to USPS handoff where the USPS driver just leaves a note
in your mailbox saying that your package will be at the Post Office waiting
for you. Why did I wait 3 days to go pick up a package from a place with a
horribly long line? I can't imagine what the line is going to be like on the
day after Christmas, damnit Amazon.

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qasar
Warning flags should get raised when statements are made about how a company's
health makes more sense "when we stop trying to understand it by looking at
financial statements".

In finance, creativity is not an asset and the standardization allows the
public a structure to critically assess the organization. Specifically against
other similar organizations. Of course, if there were financial statements
made specifically for (let's say) Twitter - Twitter could highlight all their
strengths and quietly hide their weaknesses. I'm not sure that's what is best
for the public.

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valar_m
The quote is a little less scary in context:

"But the "mystery" of Amazon's surging valuation over recent years becomes a
lot less mysterious when we stop trying to understand it by looking at
financial statements that were developed long ago for bondholders in an
industrial economy, not for stockholders in an information economy –
statements that don't tell us what matters most to investors."

The article had nothing to do with creative accounting or misleading financial
statements.

To the contrary, Amazon's compliance with accounting rules is a key part of
the author's argument -- that Amazon's expenditures on R&D and advertising,
though resulting in lower earnings per share right now, are investments that
will pay off in the future.

Full Disclosure: Amazonian.

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droopyEyelids
This seems like exactly what Groupon got in trouble for.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACSOI](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACSOI)

Is the difference that Groupon tried to put that info out pre-IPO when Amazon
is only using it to market stock to current investors?

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fiatmoney
Regulatory filings are special.

Also, in Groupon's case, amortization of marketing / customer acquisition
costs depends on a particular model of customer retention (which is part of
the reason that for regulatory purposes it has to be fully accounted for in
Year 1). It's a lot more likely for someone to become a lifelong Amazon
customer than a lifelong Groupon customer after their first purchase.

Also, Groupon doesn't really have "R&D" of the kind Amazon does - robot
warehouses, elastic computing platforms, & logistics systems are both
expensive to develop & very valuable.

