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Amazon is an American-based multinational company that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital media streaming, and artificial intelligence-based automation products.
It is the World’s most valuable brand which generated a revenue of 38,606.4 crores US dollars in 2020.
Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon who started it back on 5th July 1994 in his garage in Bellevue, Washington, US today it is a mega-company having its headquarters in Seattle, Washington US.
Amazon owns numerous subsidiary companies under its umbrella, some important ones are as follows:
- Amazon Web Service (AWS) – Cloud computing.
- Kuiper systems – Satellite Internet
- Amazon Lab126 – Computer hardware
Does Amazon Own Zoox?
The answer is YES. Zoox is owned by Amazon and is now one of its subsidiaries. It was founded by Tim Kentley – Klay & Jesse Levinson in 2014.
On June 26, 2020, the signing of a definitive merger agreement took place between Amazon and Zoox under which Amazon paid over 1.2 billion dollars for acquiring Zoox as a completely owned subsidiary.
However, even after being completely acquired by Amazon, Zoox will continue to operate as a standalone business within Amazon.
About Zoox:
Zoox is a company that is putting its heart and soul into creating a fully autonomous, driverless car designed specifically for passenger rides and giving them an autonomous ride-hailing experience.
They call it “Robo-taxi” (Much like the ones we see in movies).
The headquarter of Zoox is in Foster City, California, and the primary product that Zoox is self-driving cars.
At present, Aicha Evans is the CEO and Jesse Levinson is the CTO & co-founder of Zoox.
Why did Amazon acquire Zoox?
Like many other companies, Zoox also took a hard hit due to the coronavirus pandemic and had to remove its 120 workers and shut down a couple of its pilot projects.
To keep a futuristic solution-centric company afloat, it needed a helping hand and that’s when Amazon kicked in.
Acquiring Zoox was a well-thought-out and bold move by Amazon as the acquisition of Zoox has marked a big entry of Amazon into the autonomous vehicle market and competing with tough competitors like Tesla who is the biggest manufacturer of autonomous vehicles as of now.
Jeff Wilke, Amazon’s Consumer Division Chief has given a statement in which he praised the efforts of Zoox for their vision of developing a world-class autonomous ride-hailing experience for their customers. He on the behalf of Amazon expressed their excitement to begin working on making this vision a reality.
Moreover, Amazon has previously invested in electric truck maker Rivian and self-driving startup Aurora.
So, we can say that Amazon has invested in self-driving vehicles and electric vehicle startups before but Zoox is the first acquisition by the company.
How Amazon Acquired Zoox?
Amazon acquired Zoox for a whopping 1.2 billion dollars. As per the details leaked about this acquisition deal by Amazon, it is now known as “Amazoox”.
Also, Jesse has said that Amazon’s support will remarkably accelerate their work in becoming closer to their objective of delivering clean, safe and enjoyable transportation in the world.
Benefits To Amazon after acquiring Zoox:
Some of the key benefits are as follows:
Driverless Delivery:
- In an analysis report by Morgan Stanley, it was mentioned that Amazon can save can more than 20 billion dollars if it becomes successful in adopting driverless delivery of products.
- As per a CNBC report, Amazon can integrate Zoox’s product offerings into its logistics network to offer cheaper and faster delivery to its customers. So, we can say that Amazon is planning to deliver products instead of people which is a long shot but if brought into practice can shake the entire global e-commerce market all at once.
Cashier-less Grocery Stores:
- Amazon can also use Zoox’s technical expertise in developing cashier-less grocery stores. This can be a phenomenal time saver for the customers who usually need to wait for it in the queue in front of the cash counter to pay for their products.
Again, a long shot, but can be revolutionary!
Helping hand in fulfilling Amazon’s objectives in The Climate Pledge:
- Zook’s ground-up technology of making zero-emission vehicles can certainly help Amazon in developing vehicles that can fulfill their aim of The Climate Pledge, (an initiative by Amazon to reduce their carbon footprints and achieve net-zero carbon in 10 years).
Conclusion:
With the rising advancement in technology, it is clear that autonomous vehicles are going to be a reality soon, so entering the market now and creating something remarkable can give companies a boost in their growth curve.
Zoox is one of the leading startups in the self-driving vehicle sector and Amazon entering the autonomous market by acquiring Zoox is a great example of a company following this strategy.
Now we are yet to see how Amazon’s business and company growth will take a turn in the future because the technology is still far from making self-driving cars or cashier grocery stores a reality.