Alright. I will admit that I did not see this coming, but so are most of you who do not have a fine grasp about the intricacies of financial talk such stock, net worth (a complex concept by itself) and EBITDA, to mention a few.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is richer than everyone as of today. This development has ousted Microsoft’s Bill Gates who has held the position since 2013. These extra-ordinary and serial entrepreneurs have exploited the power of the internet to push their business, and have been billionaires ($ billionaires, not KES or Naira billionaires) for as long as I can remember.
The past few months have seen Amazon’s stock rise substantially, which is why Bezos’s net worth has surpassed the $90 billion mark. Bill Gate’s net worth is also at $90 billion but Jeff must have added a few numbers to justify his top spot.
“If the stocks hold up today, Bezos — who around 80 million shares of Amazon — will add more than $800 million to his fortune. That would put him past Gates, assuming the valuations of their non-stock holdings haven’t changed,” reports CNBC.
At the beginning of 2017, Bezos was world’s fourth richest person but has since leapfrogged Buffet and Amancio Ortega, who ranks third with a net worth of $82.7 billion. Unlike Gates, Bezos, who has interests in media, technology and culture is not always forthcoming with philanthropy.
His net worth hit a billion-dollar mark ($1.6 billion) after Amazon’s IPO in 1998. By 2007, his net worth reached $4.4 billion, which rose to $18.4 billion in 2012. It is not surprising that that number has ballooned to over $90 in less than 5 years thanks to sharp jump in Amazon’s stock.
For the past three decades, only six people have held the ‘richest person’ moniker on Earth and Bezos has slotted himself a space in that list.
Amazon was started 22 years ago, and its initial business model was to sell books, which Bezos did from his garage. Remember, Apple Inc. started in the same fashion back in 1977 when Steve Jobs and Wozniac the multi-billion-dollar organization in Jobs’ garage.
Start selling books on the internet, people. Throw in a garage for good measure.
