[luser001]

Answer: evolution. The ones who tried this don't exist any more.

Amazon is an outlier.

If another company did this, but it's stock price didn't keep rising, corporate "raiders" will replace the board and get money back as dividends.

Sorry if my point isn't clear. I'm typing this in a hurry.

[varelse]

I'm not sure that Amazon is an outlier, but rather that as you say, other companies fear they would get raided if they tried to reinvest all their profits (what most companies probably ought to do a lot more of IMO) instead of issuing them as dividends and/or taking the money off-shore.

Given that Jeff Bezos cut his teeth at D.E. Shaw, I'll bet he went into this with his eyes wide open as opposed to the usual lucky and wet behind the ears ivy-league hipster willing to sign away 90+% of his/her idea's net worth from the get-go just to get a shot to pursue it.

Jeff Bezos was the right guy in the right place at the right time. That doesn't mean Amazon can't be taken out, it just means that someone needs to enter the space with a background capable of competing with him rather than creating another pets.com.