Amazon.com
A partnership between the two former competitors was originally announced April 2001, years after Borders was slow to launch online services -- at one point arguing it did not need to -- and had lost the early race to Amazon and distant runner-up, Barnes & Noble
Today, if you visit Borders.com, it looks a lot like Amazon (in fact, the URL reverts to Amazon), except it offers only a few product categories to Amazon's dozens. The Amazon partnership also extends to Waldenbooks.com, another Borders company.
Since 2001, this arrangement is something close to admittance of total online defeat for the venerable Borders, which decided it's better to get a tiny slice of the online pie by teaming with the leader rather than nothing at all.
As with recent news that limping BarnesandNoble.com
What once was one of the most controversial stocks on the market now makes for a pretty boring story. Amazon has won. How will a competitor come along and displace it now? That may prove next to impossible. The late '90s made kings -- and it looks like those early Amazon investors weren't crazy after all. Just Foolish. (Wink, wink.)
Disagree? Want to go to the mat about Amazon? Visit the Amazon discussion board in our Fool Community (free trial required).