Now, Amazon (AMZN) is talking real quick delivery. The company announced Thursday that it’s launched a one-hour bicycle delivery service in Manhattan for Prime members that buy eligible daily items through a mobile app — confirming earlier reports that such a program was in the works. The service, called Prime Now, for now is starting only in select areas of Manhattan. It’s slated to be rolled out to more U.S. cities in 2015. The cost for a
2015 could be the year of the spinoff, with eBay (EBAY), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and others spinning off divisions to unlock shareholder value, according to the Edge Consulting Group. E-commerce company eBay plans to spin off its digital payments unit PayPal as a separate public company next year. And HP plans to split into two publicly traded entities. One company will be devoted to servers, software and cloud technology, while the other will focus on HP’s traditional PC and printer businesses. Meanwhile, Symantec (SYMC) plans to split into two companies as well, with one focused on security and another on information management. In a report Monday, Edge Consulting Group suggested two other potential spinoffs involving Amazon.com (AMZN) and EMC (EMC). In October, hedge fund manager Elliott Management urged data storage company EMC to spin off its majority-owned VMware (VMW). “EMC and VMware have grown and are now competing…
Amazon.com (AMZN) is providing some slack to holiday procrastinators. The world’s largest online retailer on Tuesday said it is extending its free shipping offer to Friday, Dec. 19, for delivery of items purchased on its site and arriving to recipients by Dec. 24. Amazon’s cut-off date was Dec. 17 last year. Customers who complete orders as late as 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 19 can qualify for the free shipping offer. Last week, Amazon launched a near