Posts by brad
Why Amazon is buying MGM for $8.5 billion
In early 2017, Jeff Bezos gathered executives from his Hollywood division, Amazon Studios, and told them, “I want my Game of Thrones.” The chief executive officer was frustrated. The team was developing niche programming like the gender identity drama Transparent and the retro-feminist comedy the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. They lacked the kind of mainstream appeal that might introduce wider audiences…
Read MoreAmazon Unbound In The News
REVIEWS The New York Times, “To Understand Amazon, We Must Understand Jeff Bezos” by Ben Smith The Washington Post, “How did Amazon grow so fast? By thinking outside the shipping box” by Marc Levinson The Seattle Times, “Inside Jeff Bezos’ obsessions” by Shira Ovide ARTICLES, EXCERPTS & INTERVIEWS Mashable: “How Bezos became an asshole, and…
Read MoreThe Secret History of Alexa
Wired Magazine has the second excerpts from Amazon Unbound, on the inception of Alexa, its early challenges, and the secret identity of the actress and singer who lent her voice to Amazon’s disembodied artificial intelligence. Here’s Jeff Bezos’s first ever whiteboard sketch of an Alexa device, circa early 2011.
Read MoreA True Story: I won $10,000 in Whole Foods Gift Cards
Out of the blue in 2019, I got a call from Amazon. The person on the line informed me I had won $10,000 in Whole Foods gift cards, part of a sweepstakes I was entered into by using my Amazon credit card at the organic grocer. Obviously, I figured it was a scam. I called…
Read MoreJeff Bezos to Step Aside as Amazon CEO
When Bezos announced in February 2021 that he would cede the CEO chair to deputy Andy Jassy, I wrote this opening essay for Bloomberg Businessweek.
Read MoreHow Jeff Bezos Beat the Tabloids
The first excerpts from Amazon Unbound are out and on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek! It’s a selection from Chapter 13, Complexifiers, on the saga that enveloped Jeff Bezos and Amazon in late 2018 and early 2019. It’s a tale that involves a scheming Hollywood manager, desperate tabloid newspaper editors, and spurious claims of political…
Read MoreThe Amazon Unbound Virtual Book Tour
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be “appearing” around the country to talk about Amazon Unbound, Jeff Bezos, and all the beautiful awkwardness that comes with writing and promoting a book from my garage during a pandemic. Please join me at an upcoming event, ask questions, and tell me how you feel about Amazon and…
Read MoreExcerpts from The Upstarts, Volume 2: The Real Origins of Uber
The ride-hailing company Uber Technologies was invented by a Canadian and originally coded in Mexico. An excerpt from the book on Uber’s origins in The Guardian, published just as the world is taking a new look at Uber’s character amid charges of complicity with the Trump administration.
Read MoreExcerpts of The Upstarts, Volume 1: The Secret Weapons of Uber and Airbnb
Excerpts of The Upstarts are out today in Bloomberg Businessweek. This includes material from the introduction and chapters four and eight. And more is coming soon!
Read MoreSilicon Valley Reckons with its Political Power
Technology’s transformation of society seems to be speeding up. And now we know where it all leads: to the 25th floor of Trump Tower, and a central spot in the national dialogue over an evolving economy, with all its accompanying winners and losers. My opening essay in the 2016 year end issue of Bloomberg Businessweek.
Read MoreThe Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn’t content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store—a store that offered limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To do so, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition that transformed retail in the same…
Read MoreThe Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World
Amid the throngs at the January 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama, two groups of entrepreneurs were there not just to witness history but to make it. Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk were in the national mall that day, promoting a website called Airbed&Breakfast.com. Meanwhile Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp sat with friends in…
Read MoreThe Uber Slayer: the True Story of China’s Didi
Didi was one of dozens of ridesharing startups that sprouted in China in early 2012. Here’s a Businessweek cover story on how it out maneuvered them all and then went head to head with Uber.
Read MoreWelcome to Larry Page’s Flying Car Factories
A summer 2016 cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek on Larry Page’s secret flying car skunkworks with my pal Ashlee Vance.
Read MoreHere’s the Guy Behind Apple’s Enormous Chip Business
A February, 2016 profile of Cupertino’s chief chipmaker, Johny Srouji, for Bloomberg Businessweek.
Read MoreUber and the Invasion of the Taxi Snatchers
Uber has managed to become one of the most loved and controversial startups of the smartphone age. A Bloomberg Businessweek cover story.
Read MoreFacebook Turns 10: the Mark Zuckerberg Interview
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and CEO, has many reasons to be grateful as his company turns 10 – and a few reasons to remain scared. A Bloomberg Businessweek cover story.
Read MoreThe Bitcoin Mining Arms Race Heats Up
Bitcoin is the digital currency that thrills nerds, inspires libertarians, and incites the passions of economists who debate the value of money made from nothing but ones and zeroes. A Bloomberg Businessweek cover story.
Read MoreQuestions for Book Clubs About The Everything Store
I recently heard from a reader who was organizing a book club discussion of The Everything Store. “I couldn’t find any great resources, so I thought I’d take a chance and email you and see if you, as the author, have any suggestions,” she asked. After thinking about it a bit, I offered these 10…
Read MoreBlogging The Everything Store: Amazon is Santa Claus
On the Web, the grind and chaos of retail’s biggest day will be invisible—hidden hundreds of miles away, inside the massive warehouses of juggernauts like Amazon.com and Wal-Mart.
Read MoreThe Everything Store Wins ‘Business Book of the Year’
I’m delighted to report that The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon has won Business Book of the Year, awarded annually by the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs. Here’s the FT’s story about the evening, and some embarrassing photos of the ceremony which was hosted by Lionel Barner, FT editor, Lloyd Blankfein,…
Read MoreThe Everything Store, Italian Edition
The Everything Store is being translated into over a dozen languages. Today I received copies from the Italian publisher, Hoepli. According to Google, “Vendere tutto” translates into “Sell Out.” I hope that is not quite right…
Read MoreResponding to MacKenzie Bezos’s One-Star Slapdown of The Everything Store
One of the gratifying and terrifying things about writing a book in 2013 is that anyone can immediately publish their review of it.
Read MoreThe New York Times Review(s)
There’s no better – or tougher – reviewer than Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times. Today she casts her critical eye on The Everything Store. You can read the review here. Update: and here’s author Duff McDonald’s review of the book in the New York Times Book Review.
Read MoreMore Great Coverage
The Financial Times reviews “The Everything Store.” Sample: “Brad Stone, a technology journalist who first covered Amazon in 2000, has done a remarkable job in The Everything Store, in a way that (Jeff) Bezos would appreciate – by working very hard.” Here’s a fun conversation with Len Edgerly of the Kindle Chronicles podcast. I always enjoy…
Read MoreTalking with Author Daniel Pink About the Everything Store
In addition to penning several bestselling books like “To Sell is Human,” author Daniel Pink conducts Q&As with authors as part of his excellent “Office Hours” podcast. I’ve known Dan for about a decade and my fortuitous email to him about coming to Washington D.C. last week turned into this conversation. There are some very…
Read MoreTalking to NBC’s David Gregory about The Everything Store
On Sunday, I spoke to NBC’s David Gregory for a “Meet the Press” extra. Check out the video here.
Read MoreBlogging the Everything Store 2: Jeff Bezos’s League of Shadows
Bezos’s shadow, or Technical Advisor, allows him to magnify his impact and insight throughout Amazon.
Read MoreBlogging the Everything Store 1: Climbing Amazon’s Ladder
Most Amazon employees know OLRs as the meeting where careers and livelihoods can be won and lost in an instant.
Read MoreMedia Appearance Monday
Promoting The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.
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