Amazon calls its $475 million preferred equity investment in Saks Global Enterprises “worthless” after the luxury beauty retailer declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this week. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Amazon — which owns about 23% of Saks — says the bankrupt retailer agreed to pay a referral fee for Saks-branded goods sold on Amazon’s website, guaranteeing at least $900 million over eight years. Amazon opposes Saks’ bankruptcy financing motion, claiming it needed Amazon’s approval. “Saks continually failed to meet its budgets, burned through hundreds of millions of dollars in less than a year, and ran up additional hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid invoices owed to its retail partners.”
