Amazon Hires Founders of Covid-19 Testing Startup to Curb Spread
Feb 13 2021, 2:19 AM
February 12 2021, 2:38 AM
February 13 2021, 2:19 AM
(Bloomberg) Amazon.com Inc. has hired several employees of a Covid-19 testing startup as part of efforts to curb outbreaks among its workers.
(Bloomberg) Amazon.com Inc. has hired several employees of a Covid-19 testing startup as part of efforts to curb outbreaks among its workers.
Caspr Biotechâs cofounders, Chief Executive Officer Franco Goytia and Chief Strategy Officer Carla Gimenez, joined Amazon in December, according to a person familiar with the situation. The pair, along with several other startup employees, are working on a project codenamed Artemis. Itâs unclear whether Amazon acquired Caspr Biotech.
For Amazon.com Inc., blowout growth is no longer enough.
Tuesdayâs news of surging sales and profit elicited shrugs from Wall Street, with the shares extending a rare stretch of underperformance that has now lasted for several months. But analysts agree: this is only a temporary lull after years of strong gains, and one investors should take advantage of.
The e-commerce giantâs stock has fallen nearly 3 per cent since the end of August, lagging behind the S&P 500 Indexâs 11 per cent gain as traders developed what JPMorgan Chase dubbed âFANG fatigue,â and instead turned to new favorites like small-caps and value plays. The strong outperformance that marked the early months of the coronavirus crisis stalled as the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines pointed to an environment when pandemic winners were not the only place to find huge demand and growth.
Amazon.com Inc. breached the $1 billion-a-day revenue mark in 2020, in another example of how the company’s massive growth and market dominance has made its stock a near-unanimous favorite on Wall Street.
The e-commerce giant’s fourth-quarter results brought full-year revenue to $386 billion. According to an analysis of Bloomberg data, Walmart Inc. is the only other U.S. company with a $1 billion daily sales average, though Exxon Mobil has hit it in the past.
Amazon’s massive haul reflects both the holiday shopping season and the pandemic, which accelerated a longstanding shift to online retail over last year. As a measure of how the company is thriving in this environment, revenue grew nearly 44% in the fourth quarter, topping $100 billion for the first time; it also guided toward another quarter above that level.
The transition arrives at time when Amazon seems unstoppable, fueled by record sales amid the pandemic and generating massive cash and profits from the cloud services business