# Amazon’s new price of doing business—the right to buy ownership stakes in vendors

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-s-new-price-of-doing-business-the-right-to-buy-ownership-stakes-in-vendors/945282>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [June 29, 2021, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-s-new-price-of-doing-business-the-right-to-buy-ownership-stakes-in-vendors/945282 "2021-06-29T21:47:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2021, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-s-new-price-of-doing-business-the-right-to-buy-ownership-stakes-in-vendors/945282/1 "2021-06-29T21:47:32Z")

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> The e-commerce giant started including warrants—rights to buy stock in the future at a set price—in vendor contracts a decade ago. But in recent years, Amazon has been making the unusual request more frequently, according to a new report from [The Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-demands-one-more-thing-from-some-vendors-a-piece-of-their-company-11624968099). Amazon’s [last quarterly report](http://www.apple.com) said the company held $2.8 billion in warrants, up fivefold in the last three years.
> 
> Amazon executives are reportedly careful not to include anything in writing that would suggest that the warrants are required for a vendor to earn the contract, but apparently the message didn’t need to be delivered in writing.

> **[Amazon’s new price of doing business—the right to buy ownership stakes in...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/06/amazons-new-price-of-doing-business-the-right-to-buy-ownership-stakes-in-vendors/)**
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> The retailer has rights to buy $2.8 billion of potentially discounted stock.

I think this is monopolistic and should be banned.