¢ Walmart continuing to acquire eCommerce assets and launching free 2-day shipping: Investors will likely focus on Amazon’s results relative to Wal-mart. « Amazon Business: Amazon Business announced a multi-year agreement with a public sector co-op, worth $500mn/year with a5 year contract and 6 option years (see Now we’re in Business: Amazon announces new B2B contract with public sector Co-op). ¢ Prime Now expansion: Prime Now launched 1-hour delivery in Milwaukee and Boston during the quarter. Amazon also launched the ability for Alexa users to make Prime Now orders. « Upcoming 2Q events: AWS Summit SF (April 18-19), new Prime Instant Video content rollout (Manchester by the Sea, Bosch season 3, | Love Dick). ¢« Souq.com acquisition: Amazon has an agreement to acquire Souq.com, the leading eCommerce platform in the Middle East. Terms were not disclosed, though press reports indicate that Amazon had bid $650mn for the company before Emaar Malls made a public bid of S800mn. The deal is expected to close in 2017. ¢ Physical store rollout: Amazon has launched or planned to open 10 AmazonBooks stores, is beta testing its AmazonGo grocery store concept (though public opening was delayed due to technology issues), and there are press reports that Amazon is testing other grocery store formats as well. ¢ Google Cloud Conference: No significant price announcements were made, but Google’s conference was much more impressive this year (see What a difference a year makes for Google Cloud). Souq.com brings Amazon into the Middle East Amazon announced that it has an agreement to acquire Souq.com, the leading eCommerce platform in the Middle East. Terms were not disclosed, though press reports indicate that Amazon had bid $650mn for the company before Emaar Malls made a public bid of S800mn. This will represent Amazon’s largest deal since the $970mn Twitch acquisition in 2014. Sougq.com does not disclose its sales or earnings, making it difficult to assess the acquisi