Part 1. External Analysis

(For this part, you may use resources outside the attached case (e.g., Amazons official website, books, news articles, etc.). However, citations and a reference list must be added.)

Read the attached Amazon Case Download attached Amazon Casein its entirety and perform:

1) Porters five forces model analysis on the (online) retail industry (1 page).

Porter's Five Forces is a business analysis model that helps to explain why various industries are able to sustain different levels of profitability. The five forces are frequently used to measure competition intensity, attractiveness, and profitability of an industry or market. You are expected to write a brief paragraph on Amazons situation as it relates to each of Porters five forces.

2) SWOT analysis on Amazon in the context of (online) retail industry (1 page).

The SWOT analysis will be an inventory of Amazons strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Please provide a brief paragraph concerning each area of the SWOT analysis.

Part 2. Internal Analysis (25% of Amazon Case Analysis Grade)

Perform financial ratio analysis on Amazon by using the attached financial data (Excel spreadsheet 1) Download attached financial data (Excel spreadsheet 1).

You are provided with the excel spreadsheet which includes simplified income statement and balance sheet for Amazon. Based on it, calculate the following financial ratios of Amazon for the last 5 years (Do NOT use the financial statements included in your case):

Profit Margin

Operating Profit over Revenue

Current ratio

Return on Total Assets

Present the above ratios in a TABLE and explain what your conclusions on the Amazons recent performance are.

Part 3. Market Positioning (25% of Amazon Case Analysis Grade)

Analyze the Amazons competitive position in the market by using the attached market share data (Excel Spreadsheet 2) Download market share data (Excel Spreadsheet 2). For this, you are expected to create a Pivot Table.

Attach your Pivot table to the report and explain what your conclusions on the Amazons competitive position in the market are.

Part 4. Strategic Action Recently Taken (25% of Amazon Case Analysis Grade)

Read the news article below and explain why Amazon decided to make such a strategic action recently based on your analyses in Parts 1, 2, and 3 above.

Below is a part of the news article about the Amazons recent acquisition of Zoox

Amazon Links to an external site. announcedLinks to an external site. on June 26^th, 2020 that it will acquire Zoox, a self-driving startup founded in 2014 that has raised nearly $1 billion in funding and which aims to develop autonomous driving technology, including vehicles, for the purposes of providing a full-stack solution for ride-hailing.

Zoox Links to an external site. will continue to exist as a standalone business, according to Amazons announcement, with current CEO Aicha Evans continuing in her role, as well as CTO and co-founder Jesse Levinson. Their overall company mission will also remain the same, the release notes. The Financial Time reports that the deal is worth $1.2 billionLinks to an external site..

The Wall Street Journal had reported at the end of May that Amazon was looking at Zoox as a potential acquisition targetLinks to an external site., and that the deal had reached the advanced stages.

Zoox has chosen one of the most expensive possible paths in the autonomous driving industry, seeking to build a fit-for-purpose self-driving passenger vehicle from the ground up, along with the software and AI end to provide its autonomous driving capabilities. Zoox has done some notable cost-cutting in the past year, and it brought in CEO Evans in early 2019 from IntelLinks to an external site., likely with an eye toward leveraging her experience to help the company move toward commercialization.

With a deep-pocketed parent like Amazon, Zoox should gain the runway it needs to keep up with its primary rival Waymo, which originated as Googles self-driving car project, and which counts Google owner Alphabet as its corporate owner.

Amazon has been working on its own autonomous vehicle technology projects, including its last-mile delivery robots, which are six-wheeled sidewalk-treading bots designed to carry small packages to customer homes. The company has also invested in autonomous driving startup AuroraLinks to an external site., and it has tested self-driving trucks powered by self-driving freight startup EmbarkLinks to an external site..

The Zoox acquisition is specifically aimed at helping the startup bring their vision of autonomous ride-hailing to reality, according to Amazon, so this doesnt look to be immediately focused on Amazons logistics operations for package delivery. But Zooxs ground-up technology, which includes developing zero-emission vehicles built specifically for autonomous use, could easily translate to that side of Amazons operations.

Meanwhile, if Zoox really does remain on course for passenger ride-hailing, that could open up a whole new market for Amazon one which would put it head-to-head with Uber and Lyft once the autonomous driving technology matures.