Bezos, the world’s richest man, said that his Amazon company, which is currently valued at just short of $1 trillion, could one day meet its own end, CNBC reported, citing an audio record of the address.
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“Amazon is not too big to fail … In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years,” Bezos told his staff.
Bezos also emphasized that in order not to meet the same fate as Sears, which was once the world’s largest retail chain and declared bankruptcy in October, Amazon should “obsess over customers.”
“If we start to focus on ourselves instead of focusing on our customers, that will be the beginning of the end. We have to try and delay that day for as long as possible,” he said.
“The governor and the mayor have decided to throw Jeff Bezos almost $3 billion in subsidies and tax breaks – and throw in a helipad so he doesn’t have to take the damn 7 train,” said city councilman Jimmy Van Bramer.
Amazon also became a subject in an antitrust investigation by European regulators into the company’s use of data. In the US, where Amazon is shortly expected to account for 50 percent of all e-commerce, there have been calls to break the company up. The company has also been criticized by US President Donald Trump, who has threatened investigations over Amazon’s taxes and use of the postal service.