[tonyedgecombe]

Amazon is two businesses in one. AWS is a high margin technology services business. The rest is a low margin box shifting distributor.

To be competitive in distribution you need to be ruthless about costs. I've consulted for a few of these sort of companies and it's insane what they will do to save a few pennies. They are utterly miserable places to work as their frugal attitude spills over into all their interactions. It starts with using doors as desks and progresses to making staff piss in a bottle.

I suspect this culture is what makes Amazon as a whole such a difficult employer.

If they were two independent businesses then it would never make sense for them to merge, just as you wouldn't expect Microsoft to buy Walmart. It would probably be better for both sides if they divorced.