Amazon is turning into a logistics as a service (LaaS) provider, Hope writes.

Why it matters: The company will soon allow eligible U.S. merchants to offer its Prime logistics services without actually having to sell on Amazon.

• Its future growth, especially in terms of profits, could increasingly ride on its ability to manage inventory, warehouse and deliver for other businesses.

Details: Amazon will open up its Buy with Prime program — running on an invite-only basis since April last year — at the end of the month, Amazon announced yesterday.

• Sellers who sign up pay Amazon to store and deliver their products, as well as process customer payments.
• People who pay for Amazon Prime get the benefit of free shipping and next-day delivery from more places that want to keep selling — or only sell — through their own websites. (Direct-to-consumer brands, for example.)

What they're saying: Sharon Gee, VP of revenue growth at Buy With Prime partner BigCommerce, called the move, announced during Amazon’s sellers conference last year, "essentially ... a change in their philosophy."

• "For the first time ever, Amazon was going to modularize their fulfillment capability,” she tells Axios. 

The big picture: In many ways, Amazon’s LaaS play is taking off similarly to its profit engine, Amazon Web Services.

• “Amazon’s smartly figuring out what alternative revenue sources are available to them, leveraging the assets that they have really perfected,” Anne Mezzenga, co-CEO of Omni Talk, a news platform, tells Axios.

Southwest Airlines felt the biggest sting among its peers today after the FAA paused takeoffs nationwide due to a key flight system outage early this morning, Hope writes.

Catch up quick: The percentage of delayed and canceled flights across Southwest, American, United and Delta grew from about 35% around 11am to more than 50% by the end of the afternoon, according to FlightAware data.

• Shares of Southwest, which have dropped nearly 8% over the past month due to its system meltdown over the holidays, closed lower by 0.7% today.
• Competitors United, American, Delta and Spirit all rebounded to close in the green.

✂️ Blackrock is cutting up to 500 jobs, its first round of layoffs since early 2019. (Bloomberg)

🐭 Disney named Mark Parker its next chairman, succeeding Susan Arnold. (Variety)

Video game giant Ubisoft today cut projects and lowered its estimated operating income for the current year by $1 billion, Axios Gaming author Stephen Totilo writes.

• The company blamed macroeconomic conditions, suggesting other game companies might struggle similarly.

Details: Net bookings — which include game sales, downloadable content purchases and other transactions — are expected to decline 10% for the year, rather than the 10% growth the company previously forecasted.

The big picture: Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and CFO Frédéric Duguet told investors in a hastily announced investor call today that inflation was giving some gamers pause.

• They said a reluctance to spend was most evident in their casual and mobile sectors.

Yes, but: Ubisoft has had a conspicuously fallow run over the last two years. Its flagship Assassin’s Creed series hasn’t had a new game since 2020’s AC Valhalla, the largest gap in the series’ 15-year history.

Go deeper.

All five children of Bernard Arnault — currently the world’s richest person — hold management positions at brands within luxury conglomerate LVMH, Reuters reports.

Driving the news: He just named his daughter Delphine CEO of Christian Dior, the company’s second largest fashion label.

The big picture: Tracking nepotism babies or “nepo babies” kicked off after New York magazine last month peered into notable Hollywood family trees.

• From the Redstones, Wenners and Murdochs in media to the Tysons of the poultry industry and the Laurens of apparel, Arnault’s clan is a reminder that corporations are no different from Hollywood.

"I remember when I first came to Hollywood, it was a dream come true … until I got here."