[timmaxw]

The latter seems plausible to me, but the former makes no sense. If the problem is that Amazon-retail has too much market power, how would splitting off AWS help with that problem? Amazon-retail would still have the same fraction of the retail market as before.

[burkaman]

Splitting off AWS wouldn't be enough on its own, but I think the argument would be that Amazon makes a substantial amount of its operating income from AWS (70% in the latest quarter: https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details...), which allows it to fund anti-competitive marketplace practices like undercutting competitors at a loss to force them out of business. It would be more difficult to sustain such practices without AWS income.

[scarface_74]

Exactly, people here who shout “break them up”, don’t put an ounce of thought into it.