Oh Andy… when will you ever learn?

In an invigorating court filing this week, Amazon wanted everyone to know it’s done playing nice with Saks Global after the luxury retailer filed for Chapter 11 and promptly informed everyone that Amazon’s equity stake is now “presumptively worthless.” Translation: Jeff didn’t sign up to be the bagholder.

And the timing couldn’t be better… or worse.

Because less than a year ago, Amazon wrote a $475M check to back Saks’ $2.7B acquisition of Neiman Marcus, under the assumption that luxury fashion would flourish on Amazon’s platform and everyone would hold hands while logistics magic happened.

Instead?

Saks allegedly burned through hundreds of millions of dollars in under 12 months… missed budgets… and racked up hundreds of millions more in unpaid invoices. Which is not typically how “strategic partnerships” are supposed to go (especially ones with Andy Jassy involved).

Oh but Amazon didn’t stop there.

The company also objected to Saks’ bankruptcy financing plan, arguing it would shove Amazon further down the repayment ladder while loading fresh debt onto parts of the business that previously didn’t have it. In other words: you’re broke, you’re borrowing more, and somehow I’m the one getting punished.

(Source: New York Post)

Naturally, Amazon sprinkled in a polite threat.

The filing says it “hopes” Saks resolves its concerns… but if not, Amazon may pursue “more drastic remedies,” including pushing for an examiner or trustee to step in and start flipping over couches.

During Wednesday’s hearing in Houston, Alfredo Perez allowed Saks to tap $1.75B in emergency financing after the company warned it would otherwise face immediate liquidation. Amazon’s objection, however, is still hanging in the air.

For Amazon, this stings. The company has been trying… and retrying… to crack luxury and physical retail for years. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it’s Grubhub. Sometimes it’s… this.

Also worth noting: Salesforce is a smaller Saks shareholder too… though for now, Marc Benioff is surprisingly comfortable letting Amazon do the yelling.

So what’s the takeaway?

Everyone has a fight they just can’t seem to win. For some people, it’s rooting for a dogsh*t NFL franchise. For others, it’s treating credit cards like free money.

For Amazon, it appears to be the recurring fantasy that it can crack the luxury fashion game… even while most of its customers are busy loading their carts with $30 Lululemon knockoffs instead of the $199 real thing.

Meanwhile, shareholders are muttering to themselves, “When will they ever learn?”

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Amazon as mentioned in the article.