According to Insider, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) is in talks with other companies about forming a “Rebel Alliance” to challenge Microsoft Corp’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) supremacy in the work-productivity application industry.
What Happened: Amazon wants to work with software companies to sell a bundle of business programs for one low price. Through the Amazon Web Services cloud platform, corporate customers would purchase a package that included other capabilities such as single sign-on and unified billing.
Dropbox Inc (NASDAQ: DBX), Slack Technologies Inc (NYSE: WORK), and Smartsheet Inc (NYSE: SMAR) were among the companies that discussed the bundle with Amazon.
Though AWS CEO Andy Jassy is slated to become Amazon CEO next week, talks have been going on for over a year. According to Insider, Jassy has not signed off and has requested a stronger pitch many times.
Companies who want to acquire a range of business software would benefit from a package. Instead of buying everything from a single vendor like Microsoft, a corporation may buy Slack for internal chat and Dropbox for cloud storage.
It would also provide a viable alternative to Microsoft’s 365 suite of goods, which now dominates the market with services such as word processing, spreadsheets, team messaging, and videoconferencing. Smaller businesses, on the other hand, may find it difficult to pay for and operate separate apps.
Why It Matters: Amazon wants to take AWS beyond its core cloud-infrastructure business and into the world of work productivity apps.
With limited success, AWS introduced a series of tools that compete directly with Dropbox, Tableau, and Slack, among others.
After considering a bid for the encrypted messaging app Signal and seeing rising demand for security from government customers, AWS bought Wickr, a business-messaging provider, last week.
AWS was still concerned about Microsoft’s Azure catching up in cloud computing and becoming a greater competition by bundling with the already dominating Office suite of goods. Every AWS meeting, according to reports, was centered on Microsoft’s expanding power.
AWS infrastructure is used by many prominent commercial apps. As a result, more people are using such apps, which means more money for Amazon.
Price movement: On the last check on Thursday, AMZN shares were down 0.64 percent at $3,418.29.
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