Maggie's Farm

Long ago, Andrew Carnegie did the same thing Bezos is doing, in an attempt to 'own' the steel marketplace. Eventually his investors, and competition, forced him to take a different tack.

Bezos is fine in his supposition that this strategy will work, as long as he owns a large proportion of shares and can keep the major shareholders in agreement. Bezos owns about 19% of the company.

If the strategy 'works', the gains are from capital appreciation.
If it 'fails', investors will hold his feet to the fire. In a situation like this, with massive capital investments to support products and ideas which could lower costs and/or generate revenue, all you need is a big PR failure to make you shift course.

Of course, one big win could theoretically offset that loss - but the problem is managing PR. After all, the Tet Offensive was a US military success. Except it wasn't.

So far, he's doing a great job. He is, without a doubt, the new "Steve Jobs". He's got great ideas, and he's aggressive. But lots of people and companies out there are also aggressive and have great ideas. Bezos is just lucky enough to have the capital to support him at the moment.