| Hey there, it's Spencer in Seattle. Millennials weren't as enthusiastic about last week's Amazon Prime Day sale as they had been in the past. But first... Three things you need to know today: • Crowdstrike says "sorry" with $10 Uber Eats vouchers
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• World of Warcraft expands a union foothold at Microsoft By most accounts, Amazon.com Inc. pulled off another successful Prime Day summer sale, enticing millions of US shoppers to spend billions online at a time when folks might otherwise be distracted with summer vacations. But there was one red flag for the world's biggest online retailer. Millennials — those ages roughly 28 to 43 — were the only demographic whose Prime Day spending dropped in 2024 compared with a year earlier, according to Facteus, which collects consumer data from 120 million credit and debit cards. The drop was small at just 1.3%, but it's an outlier when compared with Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Z, which all increased Prime Day spending from 2023. It also was unique to Amazon because spending by millennials with other retailers didn't dip the week of Prime Day, according to Facteus. Why? Good question. The folks at Facteus didn't have any ideas, so I called Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst with Forrester who has been following Amazon for a long time, to pick her brain. She cautioned the dip is so small the margin of error could mean the spending actually increased, but she also had some thoughts on why millennials might be pinching pennies more than other generations. Millennials are more likely feeling the squeeze from student loan payments that resumed last year following a pandemic-era pause and they are also the most likely to be saving to buy a home, she said. It may just be a blip, but the number of millennials shopping on Amazon during the Prime Day event also dropped 4.4% compared with 2023, according to Facteus. The company doesn't provide detailed sales or demographic numbers for Prime Day. Amazon declined to comment on the data from Facteus. The e-commerce giant tends to measure Prime Day success based on the number of Prime subscribers it enrolls or retains, because those members spend about twice as much in general as nonmembers. In addition to the Prime Day deals, the subscription offers faster shipping and access to Amazon's streaming service, among other benefits. About 184 million Amazon shoppers had Prime memberships as of June, up 8% from a year earlier, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, a Chicago research firm that tracks Prime memberships and spending. So Amazon would have to see erosion in millennial Prime members to be worried, and there's no sign of that yet. — Spencer Soper Microsoft has pitched artificial intelligence as an engine that will fuel growth at the world's largest software company. But enterprise clients who have begun using Microsoft's Copilot AI assistants say the technology isn't ready to revolutionize workplaces. ServiceNow's president resigns after investigation into hiring ex-Army CIO IBM's AI consulting bookings have exceeded $2 billion since 2023, sparking post-market enthusiasm among investors. Data center power demand produces a big quarter for NextEra. The NBA made it official, announcing long-term TV deals with Disney, Amazon and Comcast — and dropping long-time partner Warner Bros. | 
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