An Interesting Read

Came across this in a case study, Leadership Online: Barnes & Noble vs. Amazon.com written by Harvard Business School:

One noted Amazon customer, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, summarized the company's [Amazon.com] appeal as follows: "Time is short and they have a big inventory and they're very reliable." According to Bezos [founder of Amazon.com], "Those are three of our four core value propositions... The only one Gates left out is price: We are the broadest discounters in the world in any product category. But maybe price isn't so important to Bill Gates."

And there was also this:

On the same day, it [Barnes and Noble] also filed a lawsuit against Amazon challenging its claim to be the "Earth's biggest bookstore." According to the suit, "Amazon is not a bookstore at all. Rather, it is a book broker making use of the Internet exclusively to generate sales to the public."

Thought it was pretty hilarious.