Photo: Christian Wiediger

The pandemic has made businesses rethink their entire business model. Some people might think that this is not good, but it’s actually good for e-commerce companies.

Amazon’s stock rose 7% after the company announced on Wednesday that they would be buying back $10 million worth of their own shares. The company’s board also approved a 20-for-1 split in its common stock.

It will be the first-ever split in Amazon since 1999 and will offer investors 19 more shares for each share they own. June 6 will be the start of the trading based on the new share price. 

Amazon’s move is the same as the one revealed by Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company, a month ago. In addition, numerous giants in different industries, including Apple Inc, Tesla, and Nvidia, have made the same move as Amazon since 2020. 

The company has seen its shares rise almost twice in recent years when the market scope for its e-commerce and cloud computing services rapidly increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to an Amazon spokesperson, “This split would give our employees more flexibility in how they manage their equity in Amazon and make the share price more accessible for people looking to invest in the company.” 

The repurchase takes the place of the former $5 billion stock buyback permitted by Amazon’s board in 2016, under which the behemoth had bought back $2.12 billion of its shares. 

Following the decline of stocks at approximately 16% due to a tech rout this year, the behemoth’s market cap thrived at $1.4 trillion as of the latest close.

Photo: CNN

With more than $20.3 million, fantasy author Brandon Sanderson broke the record for most-funded Kickstarter recipient since March 1. 

Sanderson initially sought $1 million in 30 days for four new books in his book series, which involves the Cosmere universe wherein multiple stories like “Mistborn” occur. He had written the four new books in secret over the last two years.

In just under 35 minutes, he hit the $1 million target.

Sanderson has been self-publishing the new books and has many other self-published novels. He co-wrote “Wheel of Time,” which was adapted into an Amazon Prime Video TV series. According to his website, he has been on The New York Times best-seller list 15 times and established his own book company, DragonSteel Entertainment.

With the million-dollar target achieved in minutes, Sanderson set the record for the most money raised in 24 hours, gaining $15.4 million, which is more than double the previous record, Kickstarter says.

Sanderson’s proposal broke the overall Kickstarter record of $20.3 million from 78,741 backers, set by the Pebble Time smartwatch in 2015. Kickstarter has also revealed that Sanderson’s project had, at one point, brought in $20,000 per minute. It set the new record for the most funding and the most backers in its first 24 hours.

With the 27 days left to run, the project could bring in even more funding as it currently has 84,000 backers.

On the backers’ investment, several pricing tiers start at $40, which gives backers quarterly e-books. The tier goes up to $500, where backers are provided the author’s books throughout the year on all formats and other merchandise.

Sanderson has announced that the books are expected to be delivered next year.

He wrote on Kickstarter: “Our goal is to deliver these to you all through 2023, along with—for those who want it—a swag box of cool items relating to one of my already established worlds or concepts.”

He added: “So please, join us for a Year of Sanderson and experience for yourself the secret I’ve been keeping these last few years.”

Photo: Reuters

One of Japan’s largest companies and manufacturers, Panasonic, is reportedly looking to purchase land in the United States for their new factory that will produce batteries specifically for Tesla, says Japanese broadcaster NHK on Friday. 

The multinational conglomerate company is looking to establish a factory in Oklahoma or Kansas for their proximity to Texas. Tesla has announced that it will be constructing an electric vehicle plant.

NHK did not specify the timeline for Panasonic’s US project, nor did they cite any source of information. But Panasonic has not announced plans for a US launch and does not consider this information reliable.

The multinational corporation has established a long-standing relationship with Tesla as a supplier. It plans to start mass production of the new lithium-ion battery for Tesla cars by March 2024. It comes with two brand-new assembly lines at its western Japanese factory in Wakayama. 

The battery of 4680 formats, with a width of 40mm and length 80 mm, is approximately five times larger than those supplied to Tesla now. Therefore it implies lower production costs for the US electric vehicle manufacturer. 

The all-new powerpack is expected to upgrade the vehicle range.