Amazon's Shadow Reaches All the Way to New York Insurers Meeting
- E-commerce giant’s interest in home coverage raises questions
- Analysts downplay threat, say barriers to entry are many
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As the largest U.S. insurers gathered at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square to discuss the prospects for their industry, a threat to that future emerged from the nation’s other coast.
Amazon.com Inc., the e-commerce behemoth, is reportedly considering whether to offer home insurance. The Seattle-based company, which has shaken up industries from booksellers to grocers to shoe stores, tends to incite fear among would-be rivals. Yet while the report was a timely topic at the S&P Global Ratings insurance conference Wednesday, analysts said there’s no reason to panic.