Now Amazon has made it: The online retailer is the first time a trillion US dollars on the stock market. This is more than the twelve most valuable Dax companies bring together. The computer company Apple was the jump over the trillion threshold already in early August succeeded.
It's no wonder that Amazon is so popular with investors. The business of the company is going very well. In the second quarter, the world's largest online retailer was able to increase its profits to 2.5 billion dollars - a year ago, the group had earned just 197 million dollars.
Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Seattle, the online bookseller has not only become the largest department store in the world, but also develops its own electronics such as the e-book reader Kindle and produces TV series for its streaming service. In addition to the cloud service provider Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides many other companies with a platform for their Internet activities, the Group's strongest revenue sources also include the advertising business.
In addition, CEO Bezos is constantly looking for new and promising business ideas. So Amazon is one of the pioneers of talking wizard with his software Alexa. It is plugged into the company's own networked "echo" speakers - and Amazon is trying to accommodate them in technology from other vendors. Alexa is in fierce competition with competing Google Assistant software.
Dispute between Trump and Bezos
Meanwhile, Amazon is always in the sights of US President Donald Trump. Trump has long been in trouble with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. So in April Trump had blamed the tech giants for the financial problems of the American post office via Twitter. Amazon paid too low prices to the US Post for their services, was the allegation. At the end of July, Trump relented again and hinted via Twitter that they wanted to act against Amazon in competition law.
Nevertheless, the Amazon stock has been on a high for years. Critical comments by the US president in April and July could only briefly halt the course of the stock. In 2018 alone, the share price increased by more than 70 percent.
Again and again, Amazon reaps criticism from trade unions that complain about the working conditions in the group. With the Internet dealer, there are always strikes in Germany. Background is the simmering since 2013 conflict over a collective agreement for the nationwide about 16,000 employees of the US dealer, who has refused to collective bargaining with Ver.di.