To make better use of its resources and capabilities and to maintain its profit growth, Amazon began to acquire many small specialized retail and IT companies. Its strategy to acquire small IT companies was to strengthen its distinctive competencies in SOA IT and to develop more kinds of Web-based IT commercial services that it could sell to both B&M and online companies. Bezos has always preached that Amazon is first and foremost a technology company and that its core skills drive its retail mission. Its goal in buying small retail companies was to find new opportunities to increase sales of its existing retail storefronts and to allow it to establish storefronts in new segments of the retail market. Some acquisitions have been successful, and some have not.