Category Archives: News

Amazon Expanding into Online B2B Marketplace

Amazon Logo courtesy of Bernard Goldbach
Amazon Logo courtesy of Bernard Goldbach

As of Tuesday businesses can stock up on their supplies via a new marketplace launched by Amazon.com, the astoundingly successful online retailer. Amazon will now be a player in this quickly growing market estimated to be valued at over $8.2 trillion in the United States.

The new platform will be called Amazon Business. It will offer supplies to a huge variety of businesses from biotech companies to oil and gas firms. The new marketplace will also offer special pricing and discounts for buying large quantities, two-day free shipping for purchases over $49, tax exempt status and the possibility to receive products with an Amazon guarantee.

The move will help Amazon get a foot in the door of the fast-expanding online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace. The online sector of B2B is expected to make up as much as 12 percent of all B2B sales in the US by the year 2020, according to Forrester Research estimates.

Forrester believes that over the next five years a compound annual growth rate of 7.7 percent can be expected.

“Now, business customers have access to products that are only available to businesses as well as business exclusive pricing on a number of products,” Amazon Vice-President Prentis Wilson stated.

In order to better help businesses find what they need Amazon Business will divide its products into categories such as office supplies, IT equipment, janitorial supplies, healthcare products, large industrial equipment, education, and food service supplies.

Now such impossible to find items such as traffic signs, industrial-sized deep fyers, antibodies, 55-gallon steel drums, and even a machine to pull out dents are only a click away.

Senator Warren Wants Big Banks Reigned In

US Senator Elizabeth Warren
US Senator Elizabeth Warren

In order to get the financial system in the US to work better for average people, US Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts, is calling on Republican law makers to take steps to reign in big banks.

Warren is calling on Republicans to break up big banks, put limits on bank executive bonuses and change tax laws to encourage financial institutions to take fewer risks with their capital. She is using the interest spurred by the current tax season to make her points, and added that her suggestions would not be hard to implement. The overall result of her talking points would be to create a more stable financial environment that would be less prone to the kind of disaster that befell the country between 2007 and 2009.

She would like to see a break-up of the largest banks by elected officials. Placing restrictions on the Federal Reserve on their lending policies to banks during financial crisis should also be implemented so banks understand that they cannot turn to the government for a bailout when things go south for them. Perhaps that realization will help the banks to act more responsibly.

Changing the tax code would also help banks and other financial bodies to refrain from taking too high risks, or indulging in unfair banking practices. Lawsuits filed have shown that many bankers had persuaded homeowners into mortgages that they could not afford and would not qualify for. The bankers said that they could skip paying their mortgage or pay a lower amount until they went through the process. Then the banks turned around and tried to foreclose on the home when the homeowners were disqualified from the program, according to the lawsuits.

Sequeira Appointed President of Takeda Pharm

Japan Headquarters of Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Japan Headquarters of Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Ramona Sequeira has been selected to become president of the US Business Unit of Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan-basedTakeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.

As president Saqueira will head all business operations for the US. He will workd directly under Christophe Weber, President and CEO of Takeda.

“The U.S. is a critical market for Takeda’s future growth, and I am confident that with her strong commercial experience and knowledge of the U.S. healthcare environment, Ramona is the right person to lead this important business unit and play a key role on my

leadership team,” said Weber. “Her more than 20 years of leadership experience and track record of success across multiple healthcare markets, as well as her demonstrated passion for patient centricity, will serve as a critical foundation during Takeda’s global transformation.”

Sequeira was previously Vice President of Lilly USA at Eli Lilly and Company as well as the General manger of Lilly’s UK Hub. She is experienced in a wide range of therapeutic disciplines including neuroscience and primary care. She has experience working in the US, Canada and the UK.

Gay Marriage Good for Business Says Corporate America and Beyond

Panorama of the west facade of United States Supreme Court Building at dusk in Washington, D.C., USA. Photo by Joe Ravi CC-BY-SA 3.0
Panorama of the west facade of United States Supreme Court Building at dusk in Washington, D.C., USA. Photo by Joe Ravi CC-BY-SA 3.0

Almost 400 of the world’s largest businesses, corporations, and even sports teams, banned together to present an amicus brief to the Supreme Court stating that gay marriage is ‘good for business.’

As the Supreme Court gears up to hear its major case on the constitutionality of state laws banning gay marriage, 379 companies, including such giants as Apple, Dow Chemical, Verizon and Disney presented the following statement:

“Employees with partners of the same sex should be permitted to marry if they so choose, and then should be treated identically to their married heterosexual counterparts. State laws that require otherwise impose a significant burden on us and harm our ability to attract and retain the best employees. Such laws force businesses to uphold discriminatory laws that run counter to important corporate values. In the end, economic growth suffers.”

On April 28 the SCOTUS justices will be hearing arguments for and against the ban on legalization of gay marriages in certain states. Federal courts have nullified state bans, and the court will have to decide whether the Feds have a constitutional right to uphold that nullification, or if the states alone can determine the legality of gay marriage. Today gay marriage is legal in 37 states and in the District of Columbia. One more state, Nebraska, was about to legalize when a federal appeals court got involved and stopped the process in its tracks.

Robert Benmosche, AIG CEO Dies at 70

Robert Benmosche, Chief executive officer of American International Group photo courtesy of AIG via wikipedia
Robert Benmosche, Chief executive officer of American International Group photo courtesy of AIG via wikipedia

Robert Benmosche, well-known for his role in the recovery of AIG (American Insurance Company) after its bailout by the government in 2009, died last week at the age of 70.

He took over AIG in August 2009 after the Obama administration rescued the company from collapse with a $182 billion bailout. Before stepping up to the helm of AIG Benmosche had been the chief of MetLife.

The government recruited Benmosche to lead AIG to avoid another collapse of a huge financial institution such as Lehman Brothers at the height of the financial crisis which began in 2008.

Benmosche retired in 2006 after serving as CEO of MetLife since 2000, when it went public. He moved to his villa in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and lived there until being asked to take over at AIG.

Benmosche died of lung cancer on Friday, February 28, at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.