Keeping the boss safe: Amazon installed $180,000 'bulletproof panels' at Bezos's office

Amazon installed bulletproof panels at the Seattle office of its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos - designed to withstand multiple shots from a military assault rifle, the media reported.

According to a report in The Daily Beast on Tuesday, the bulletproof project to safeguard Bezos, who has a net worth of $120 billion, cost Amazon $180,000.

Although the cost is less, "it demonstrates the lengths Bezos is willing to go to guard against real or perceived threats as his public profile grows," the report said.

Amazon spends $1.6 million a year to protect its boss from external threats, the report added.

Apple spent about $310,000 on personal security services for CEO Tim Cook last year while Oracle spent over $1.6 million to protect CEO Larry Ellison.
 
Facebook, however, spent $20 million on its CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal security last year - four times more than what he received for security in 2016, owing to the growing privacy scandals the social networking giant is facing globally.

Gavin de Becker, a veteran security consultant at Amazon, wrote a first-person account in The Daily Beast last month, claiming that Saudi Arabia hacked Bezos' smartphone and allegedly shared personal information about his extramarital affair with a media outlet.


The monarchy was "intent on harming Jeff Bezos" over The Washington Post (owned by Bezos) coverage of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, wrote de Becker.

"Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos' phone, and gained private information," de Becker said.

The private phone messages of Bezos sent to his lover, former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez, were published in The National Enquirer in October.

Saudi journalist Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Turkey's Istanbul in October 2018.

Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in the Bezos affair.

Ford partners with Amazon to allow package deliveries to owners' cars

Ford Motor Co said on Tuesday it partnered with Amazon.com Inc to allow members of the ecommercecompany's loyalty club Prime to deliver packages to their cars when they are not at home.

The world's largest online retailer last year started rolling out a program in the United States to deliver packages to its members' parked cars, as part of a drive to leave parcels where they cannot be easily stolen.

The 'Key by Amazon In-Car delivery' offering will be available for owners of select Ford 2017 and later model vehicles equipped with connectivity service, as well as for owners of Lincoln 2018 and later model cars, Ford said.

"It's a convenient, secure way to ensure your packages are delivered directly to you when you are out for the day, anticipating bad weather or wondering if your package is safe," the automaker said.

Myntra to stay independent: Walmart's Judith McKenna to employees

Fashion e-tailer Myntra-Jabong will continue to stay independent, a top Walmartexecutive reiterated on Tuesday, amid talks of increased integration with its parent Flipkart, according to people in the know of the matter.

Walmart's international division president and CEO, Judith McKenna, was in Bengaluru on a two-day visit where she addressed a town hall at Myntra, allaying concerns raised by employees about alignment with Flipkart's fashion unit. Her visit comes close on the heels of Walmart CEO Doug McMillon's India trip where he reviewed the Flipkart group's operations.

McKenna was joined by Flipkart group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and Amar Nagaram, the head of Myntra-Jabong.

The Myntra-Jabong combine has witnessed restructuring of its top deck since November 2018, leading to the departure of its CEO Ananth Narayanan. Besides the senior management churn, Jabong's staff count was reduced by 40% as more than 200 people were asked to leave and a sense of apprehension set in among Myntra employees about a possible merger of teams with Flipkart.

The 53-year-old McKenna runs the $118-billion international business for the brick-and-mortar retailer, and was responsible for stitching together the Flipkart deal last year. McKenna, who sits on the board of the e-commerce major, was accompanied by Walmart International CFO Richard Mayfield, a person in the know said.

India will remain a high-growth market where Walmart intends to pour in investments, she said, adding some of the in-house brands from Myntra's stable would go global. She also highlighted how the e-tailer was problem-solving through technology, design and innovation.

McMillon and McKenna's India trips coincide with the upcoming one-year anniversary of Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart for $16 billion. Since May 2018, the domestic e-commerce industry has undergone changes with the implementation of fresh FDI norms and the imminent entry of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries into online retail, which is also expected to shake up the market.

Amazon India sellers hit $1bn global sales

Bengaluru: Indian sellers on Amazon’s global platforms, largely the US, sold goods worth over $1 billion in the last three and half years, the e-commerce major has said. It now has over 50,000 sellers selling to Amazon’s global audience and aims to hit a gross sales mark of $5 billion in the next four years. 

The local arm of the Seattle-based e-commerce major said its global selling programme has enabled small and medium enterprises to reach a worldwide audience of 300 million users. Indian merchants have a wide selection of 140 million products available to global markets. At the end of 2018, Amazon had 32,000 Indian sellers in this programme.

For Amazon, over 80% of these exporters are coming from non-metro, tier-2 and below cities, said Gopal Pillai, head of seller services, Amazon India. The top selling products overseas are in the categories like home, books, apparel and kitchen. The leading markets for the local merchants across the US and Europe are New York, Los Angeles, London and Berlin among others. 

When asked about the impact of impending entry of Reliance in Indian e-commerce, Amazon’s India head Amit Agarwal said he does not worry about what the competitors are doing, and that he is hoping consumers will continue to shop with Amazon even if new players are entering the space. “We are working closely with the government to enable small and medium enterprises to take ‘Made in India’ global,” he said. He added the company is in complete compliance with local laws after the recent changes in FDI for e-commerce. Last week, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts the India operations had minimal impact due to the FDI laws, that were implemented from February. 

While Amazon is giving serious importance to its global selling programme, its Global Store in India, where Indians could directly purchase from the US platform in Indian currency, has been put on the back burner. TOI reported last month how Amazon’s Global Store, launched in 2016, had become non-existent on the Indian platform to comply with FDI regulations. “We don’t have anything to share on that,” Agarwal said on the fate of Global Store in India. According to Amazon, it has seen a significant spike in engagement from local sellers during major global sale events. During Prime Day, it saw an increase of 69% in number of sellers, while both Cyber Monday and Black Friday saw an increase of 30% in seller numbers.

Amazon Launches P2P Payments in India

Ecommerce giant Amazon has launched person-to-person (P2P) payments via Amazon Pay for Android users in the country. Customers can now make instant bank-to-bank transactions through the UPI platform on the localized version of the Amazon app, allowing them to settle bills and other expenses with friends, lend or return money to family, pay for services and more.

Notably, the new P2P service also will allow customers to make payments from their bank account to local stores or to Amazon delivery associates at the doorstep, who will scan a UPI QR code within the Amazon app.

The service is built on the Indian government-backed UPI platform, which is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India, and is designed for instant transfer of funds between bank accounts using a mobile device.

“Our goal is to make Amazon Pay the most trusted, convenient and rewarding way to pay for our customers,” said Vikas Bansal, director of Amazon Pay, in a statement.