See what’s new in Amazon news this week. We’re looking at deep discounts on Fire phones, retail growth during the dog days of summer and an interesting hypothetical question about Amazon’s next acquisition.

Keep reading to learn more.

Fire Sale

In anticipation of the recent Apple iPhone 6 announcements, Amazon cut the price of its Fire Phone to as little as $.99 (that’s right, ninety-nine cents). I think this is a big sign that it’s not selling as well as Amazon hoped (or maybe hardly selling at all). The Firefly image recognition API seems really cool, but the faux-3D screen doesn’t seem that impressive. I’m not surprised sales are slower than expected.

Has anyone tried a Fire Phone? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about it.

Increased Summer Retail Sales

Good news for Amazon! Retail sales rose over the past few months, which is unusual because summer is usually a slower period for most retailers. Experts think that this will push Amazon’s stock even higher, because most of the growth came in online businesses taking market share away from traditional brick and mortar retailers.

How were your Amazon sales this summer?

Should Amazon Buy RadioShack or Best Buy?

This is a really interesting article from an analyst at SunTrust. One of the most compelling reasons for the purchase is that Amazon is clearly looking to improve its local presence with Amazon Fresh and same-day delivery in some markets. Purchasing an established brick and mortar base could help with those goals. Additionally, Amazon could use the stores as their own showrooms for Amazon’s products.

An interesting reason to buy Best Buy would be for the revenue. Amazon has a goal of being a $100 billion dollar  year business. They’re getting very close and adding Best Buy’s $50 billion in yearly revenue would definitely put them over the top.

If you were Jeff Bezos would you buy Best Buy?