“I think [our] arrogance and disruption got us into trouble,” Scott Painter tells PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster. It is a rare admission from a founder who spent nearly two decades insisting that the car-buying process was broken and that radical price transparency was the fix....
New tax laws around research and capital investment reduced Amazon’s U.S. corporate income taxes by more than half in 2025, even as the company’s profits rose, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday (Feb. 6). Amazon’s current U.S. taxes declined from $9 billion to $1.2 billion, and its federal income taxes...
Amazon’s Q4 earnings call on Thursday (Feb. 5) produced the number everyone repeated: CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon expects to invest about $200 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, “predominantly in AWS,” to add capacity for AI and core cloud workloads. But the call wasn’t...
Apparel, accessories and cosmetics companies are focusing on higher-income consumers, Reuters reported Thursday (Feb. 5). Companies targeting these consumers with stepped-up ad campaigns and premium products, according to the report. Among them are Estée Lauder, which introduced new luxury price tiers and increased its marketing; Ralph...
Corporate rivalries are traditionally cast in simple, static terms. Take, for example, the competition between Amazon and Walmart, which has long been described as a clash of two competing models: each giant standing on its respective side of digital-native versus physical-first, growth versus efficiency, and Prime versus price....
Target’s new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, said Wednesday (Feb. 4) during a company town hall event that he aims to improve the retailer’s merchandise, in-store experiences and technology, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. Fiddelke, a Target veteran, became CEO Sunday (Feb. 1), according to the report. He assumed that...
Amazon is broadening the role of artificial intelligence (AI) across its business, rolling out a new generation of Alexa, exploring deeper access to OpenAI’s models and applying AI tools inside its film and television studios. Alexa+ Reframes the Assistant as an Always-On AI Interface Amazon...
The world’s newest trillion-dollar company also has a new CEO. And no, it’s not Disney. And while trillion-dollar market caps might bring to mind visions of big tech hyperscalers, it’s not one of the FAANG cohort either. The business in question is something quite different:...
PepsiCo is moving to lower prices on some of its best-known snack brands, citing mounting consumer affordability concerns as households head into the NFL’s Super Bowl week. The food and beverage giant announced Tuesday (Feb. 3) that it is rolling out new suggested retail prices...