*By Michael Teich*
Amazon inked a new partnership with American Express, but don't expect the financial industry to be the next area the tech giant jumps into.
"The thing that people misunderstand is that tech companies don't want to manufacture financial products," said Lex Sokolin, Global Director of Fintech Strategy at Autonomous Research. "It's about making the ecosystem and the platform more powerful, and finance is just a feature inside of that."
American Express announced Tuesday it will launch a co-branded Amazon credit card for small businesses. The move accelerates Amazon's foray into financial products and strengthens its position as a lender. The goal, Sokolin said, is to enable small businesses to finance their activities, getting more products on Amazon's platform, and ultimately driving more commerce.
Plus, the opportunity costs of devoting itself to the financial industry are too high.
"Amazon has tremendous high-growth, super interesting, blue oceans to explore,” he said. "They could be investing in building a mortgage business, or they can build artificial intelligence business."
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/amazon-bolsters-financial-prowess-with-new-credit-card)
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed a rule that would ban the practice of companies forcing workers to sign non-compete clauses in their contracts.
Chris Salgardo, founder and CEO at Atwater, joined Cheddar News to discuss how the company is making men's personal care mainstream. “I think that the simplicity of it is what's really resonated,” he said.
Thanh Nguyen, CEO, and co-founder of OpenComp, joined Cheddar News to discuss salary trends and how to negotiate a raise amid historically high inflation and recent data on compensation.
John Haar, managing director of Swan Private Client Services at Swan Bitcoin, joined Cheddar News to discuss the different forces which affected the price of the cryptocurrency in 2022.
Bed Bath & Beyond on Thursday warned investors that bankruptcy is now on the table, as a turnaround effort begun in the third quarter failed to right the firm's financial ship.
