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AMAZON met with small companies, then created competing products

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Under the guise of investing in the fledgling start up companies it appears that Amazon had other plans. Rather than investing, Amazon took their ideas and created their own products.

I'm all for capitalism but it strikes me that there is some level of foul play here that needs to be punished.

Of course, if you dig down deep enough into the article, Amazon claims it does not use confidential information divulged in their meetings. Of course. Hmm?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon...nvestment-fund-11595520249?st=mjz0hdbx2vcl94k

Here is part of the story, follow the link above for the full story.

When Amazon.com Inc.’s AMZN venture-capital fund invested in DefinedCrowd Corp., it gained access to the technology startup’s finances and other confidential information.

Nearly four years later, in April, Amazon’s cloud-computing unit launched an artificial-intelligence product that does almost exactly what DefinedCrowd does, said DefinedCrowd founder and Chief Executive Daniela Braga.

The new offering from Amazon Web Services, called A2I, competes directly “with one of our bread-and-butter foundational products” that collects and labels data, said Ms. Braga. After seeing the A2I announcement, Ms. Braga limited the Amazon fund’s access to her company’s data and diluted its stake by 90% by raising more capital.

Ms. Braga is one of more than two dozen entrepreneurs, investors and deal advisers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal who said Amazon appeared to use the investment and deal-making process to help develop competing products.

In some cases, Amazon’s decision to launch a competing product devastated the business in which it invested. In other cases, it met with startups about potential takeovers, sought to understand how their technology works, then declined to invest and later introduced similar Amazon-branded products, according to some of the entrepreneurs and investors.

. . .

“They are using market forces in a really Machiavellian way,” said Jeremy Levine, a partner at venture-capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners. “It’s like they are not in any way, shape or form the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. They are a wolf in wolf’s clothing.”
 

300 H and H

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I think on Capitol hill next week we will hear a lot more about this topic. ( I should sell their stock before then humm...} and from other tech giants as Congress is demanding answers to lots of questions. :smile:

If true Amazon should be sued by those they stole from. Something tells me a jury would not be very kind to Amazon either.. :bolt:

Regards, Kirk
 
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