Updating Amazon.com, Aimia Inc. and Sasol Ltd.

Article Excerpt

AMAZON.COM $358.14 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 460.2 million; Market cap: $166.1 billion; No dividends paid) has enticed Babik Parviz, a key director at Google’s secretive Google X labs, to join the company. Parviz pioneered the development of Google Glass, a wearable computer that displays information on a small display attached to a pair of glasses. More recently, Parviz led the Google team working on contact lenses with embedded electronics. Amazon recently introduced its long-awaited Amazon Fire smartphone, which features a screen that can display seemingly 3-D images without the need for special glasses. This new technology—called Dynamic Perspective—uses retina-tracking technology embedded in four front-facing infrared cameras to make some images appear to be 3-D, similar to a hologram. This technology is ideal for mobile gaming, which is a new area of focus for Amazon. Last year, the company spent nearly $6.6 billion, or 9% of its annual sales, on research and development. Parviz…