Diversification Strategies
Lucille Griffin
Dr. Marcus Crawford
BUS 508-Contemporary Business
April 26, 2012
Diversification Strategies

Compare and Contrast the two Businesses--Core Business, Their Size, Financials, Global Presence, use of E-Business (Marketing, Sales, etc.) The two businesses I chose to research are Amazon, the more successful business in diversification, and the Campbell Soup Company, the less successful business in diversification. Amazon was launched in July 1996, by Jeff Bezos, and is one of the most frequently visited shopping sites on the Internet with over 12 million customers in 160 countries, employing 1,600 staff. Amazon.com is was one of the first companies to make the Internet safe for shopping by encrypting credit card numbers and storing them on separate systems. The original plan was to give customers access to an enormous selection of books many more than any single bricks-and-mortar bookstore could hold while, being free of the considerable time and expense required to build stores and warehouses and to purchase inventory (Hamilton, D., 2004). Amazon revenues, around $4 billion a year, and is growing by more than 20 percent annually. Marketing, inventory, and warehouse operating costs have been whittled nearly to the bone. Building nine high-tech warehouses, at a cost of about $50 million apiece, parlayed Bezos' idea into the phenomenon that is Amazon.com. While keeping the business at least for then from operating in profit. That changed around 2004 and stock prices have already risen more than 150 percent in anticipation of Amazon's first profitable year (Hamilton, D., 2004). Campbell Soup Company was founded in 1869, and is one of the leaders in manufacturing and marketing branded consumer food products with approximately 24,250 employees worldwide, total revenues of 6.7 billion, 36