LOSE THE WEIGHT FOR GOOD

Good morning.

As the co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, Coli= n Angle led the team that launched the Roomba in 2002, making him the Henry= Ford of household robot vacuums. On Monday, he returned with a venture pos= itioning himself as the John D. Rockefeller of robot pals.

His new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, = makes a furry, dog-sized, AI-powered robot pet to provide =E2=80=9Cemotiona= lly intelligent=E2=80=9D companionship. Known as a Familiar, it looks like = a quadruped teddy bear with obsidian eyes and sewn-on freckles. =E2=80=9CTh= e next era of robotics is not just about dexterity or humanoid form,=E2=80= =9D Angle said in a statement. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s about machines that ca= n build and sustain human connection.=E2=80=9D

They=E2=80=99re pretty cute, but they face a dau= nting comparison when it comes to companionship: my deliciously low-tech La= brador Retriever.

Shares in shipping giants UPS and= FedEx were sent packing on Monday, falling 10% and 11%, respectively, as i= f the hoisting cables on their metaphorical freight elevator snapped.

The reason: E-commerce titan Amazon=20 entered the logistics business with the = force of a WWE wrestling heel, sending shivers down the spine of the compet= ition. Unfortunately for them, this is not kayfabe.

Ready the = Shipments

The new offering is called Amazon Supply Chain S= ervices. It is available to any business, which an Amazon release = fishing for corporate customers took care to emphasize includes healthcare,= automotive, manufacturing and retail (=E2=80=9CEveryone, call= us,=E2=80=9D in other words). The service: Companies get access to Am= azon=E2=80=99s mammoth logistics network, which includes 200 fulfillment ce= nters in the US; 80,000 trailers, 24,000 intermodal containers and a fleet = of over 100 cargo planes.

That=E2=80=99s the network that powers Amazon=E2=80=99s own hyperfast two- = to five-day deliveries, the one that the company and its third-party Market= place sellers have used for years. Its prowess and reliability are not in d= oubt, and businesses will be able to use the network to import and store in= ventory close to demand the same way Amazon does. Notably, Amazon=E2=80=99s= supply chain has a long-established lane in customs clearance from China t= o the US. That=E2=80=99s what appeals to potential customers. The benefit t= o Amazon is that the $2.9 trillion giant=E2=80=99s e-commerce unit can grow= revenue for a service that already handles logistics for thousands of inde= pendent third-party sellers. Its supply chain essentially becomes a busines= s alongside its retail, grocery and cloud computing interests. The pain fel= t by competitors varied, but was nigh universal:

• Evercore ISI dubbed the announcement a =E2=80=9Cdirect competitive bl= ow=E2=80=9D to UPS and FedEx, which have traditionally dominated the space = but have=20 struggled to=20 capture revenue from a surge in parcel s= hipping in recent years, partly because of the fulfillment capabilities of = Amazon and Walmart. Other competitors hurt in trading Monday were DHL (down= 7.3%, oof), GXO Logistics (down 18%, ouch) and Maersk (d= own 0.2%, not so bad).
• Much to rivals=E2=80=99 chagrin, Amazon already has a roster of heavy= weight customers: Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, industrial con= glomerate 3M, and apparel firms American Eagle and Lands=E2=80=99 End signe= d up for the supply chain services at launch.

Past Is Prologue: Opening up the logis= tics network to outside business harkens back to an old call in Amazon=E2= =80=99s playbook. Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing unit that grew 2= 8% year-over-year to rake in $37 billion in the first quarter of this year,= began as an internal company project to address Amazon=E2=80=99s IT infras= tructure challenges in the early 2000s. It began commercializing its cloud = computing infrastructure, initially developed for its own needs, in 2006.

Written by Sean Craig