????就在消費者們忙著在感恩節后的“網購星期一”（Cyber Monday）活動中血拼時，亞馬遜（Amazon）再次展現了它對資本的胃口。這家公司以超低利率發債，籌集了30億美元。債券分三檔，到期年限超過6.5年，亞馬遜支付的平均利率為1.6%。若將通脹因素考慮在內，這些貸款對于亞馬遜而言幾乎是零成本。這次出乎意料的債券融資是亞馬遜15年來的第一次，它將亞馬遜的現金儲備增加了一倍。【《華爾街日報》（The Wall Street Journal）有更詳細的內容報告，點擊這里閱讀。】

????這樣迅速的募資讓筆者不禁要問，亞馬遜打算用這些錢干什么。這顯然只是個開始。最近，亞馬遜達成協議，以略高于10億美元的價格收購了當前租用的西雅圖總部大樓。這是一個出人意料的決定，但亞馬遜就是一家出人意料的公司。這家公司正在投入重金，建設新倉庫，希望為客戶提供更迅速的遞送服務，特別是在那些亞馬遜最近開始收取州銷售稅的地方——或許它早就該這么做了。最近，筆者在采訪亞馬遜CEO杰夫·貝佐斯時問過，亞馬遜是否打算提供當日送達服務。當時，他轉換話題說，公司還沒有想出怎么讓這樣的服務經濟可行。他說，如果投入重金只是為了實現當日送達，而另一方面亞馬遜卻無法承接更多新訂單的話，自然就不會做這樣的決策。

????鑒于亞馬遜的規模和成長速度，人們或許會覺得驚訝，亞馬遜其實只在九個國家出售商品。它們分別是：美國、加拿大、中國、法國、德國、意大利、日本、西班牙和英國。另外，貝佐斯表示，當前亞馬遜在西班牙和意大利的投資力度尤其大。一般而言，新地區是亞馬遜將來投資的自然之選。

????顯然，亞馬遜會繼續大力投資Kindle，它將繼續成為蘋果（Apple）及其他谷歌（Google）安卓（Android）系統平板電腦的有力競爭對手。（Kindle Fire也使用安卓系統。）亞馬遜在加州庫比蒂諾的Kindle設計中心Lab126最近正在為200多個工作崗位招募人手。

????接下來，我們來看看亞馬遜眾多的業務線，其中不乏互相競爭的態勢。為了能讓讀者了解亞馬遜業務涉足之廣，筆者根據亞馬遜美國網站主頁底部列出的25個品牌整理了一個清單，包括亞馬遜對這些業務的描述（有一項業務的描述空缺）。

????

????While online shoppers were gobbling up e-deals on Cyber Monday, Amazon once again demonstrated its appetite for capital. It raised $3 billion in debt at ultra-low interest rates. Spread across three tranches of bonds that mature over 6 ? years, Amazon will pay an average of 1.6%, which makes the loan nearly cost-free to Amazon, factoring in inflation. The unexpected debt-capital raise, Amazon's first in 15 years, double's Amazon's cash stockpile. (The Wall Street Journal?has a lot of the facts?here.)

????The swift move got me wondering what Amazon (AMZN) will do with the money. There are obvious starting points. Amazon recently cut a deal to buy its currently leased Seattle headquarters buildings for a bit more than $1 billion. It's an odd decision, but Amazon is an odd company. It is investing heavily in new warehouses, the better to offer speedier delivery to customers, particularly in locations where Amazon recently has begun collecting state sales taxes—something it probably should have been doing all along. In my recent?interview?with Amazon CEO?Jeff Bezos?he deflected the question of whether Amazon wants to offer same-day delivery, saying the company hasn't figured out how to make such a service economical. He said it's hard enough investing simply to push back in the day when Amazon cuts off taking new orders.

????Given its size and growth, it's also astounding that Amazon sells in just nine countries: the U.S., Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Counterintuitively, Bezos notes that Amazon is investing particularly aggressively at the moment in Spain and Italy. New regions are a natural place for Amazon to invest its cash.

????Amazon obviously continues to invest heavily in its Kindle line, which is showing itself to be a worthy competitor to Apple (AAPL) and tablets that use Google's (GOOG) Android operating system. (The Kindle Fire uses a version of Android too.) Amazon's Lab126—it's Kindle design center in Cupertino, Calif.—recently listed more than 200 open job positions.

????Then there are Amazon's many business lines, many of which compete against each other. To get a sense of the breadth of Amazon's disparate businesses. I made a list of the 25 brands Amazon links to at the bottom of its U.S. home page, including, with one exception, the way Amazon describes them: