If you think, you are having a bad day, just consider this. A man just lost – not one, not 10, not 100 but a whopping Rs 50,000 crore in a day. Shocking, but true!
Online shopping giant Amazon’s founder cum CEO Jeff Bezos lost about $7 billion – which is about Rs 50,000 crore — during after-hours trading Thursday after his ecommerce behemoth reported lackluster third-quarter earnings. Worse, he lost his title as the richest man in the world to Microsoft’s Bill Gates.
Amazon shares fell nearly 7 per cent in after-hours trading bringing down Bezos’ net worth down to $103.9 billion. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, meanwhile is back at the top of billionaire list after a gap of two years with a valuation worth $105.7 billion.
That said, Bezos’ net worth drop isn’t entirely due to the decline in Amazon shares. He also transferred a quarter of his Amazon stake to his ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos as part of their ultra-expensive divorce settlement. MacKenzie is now worth $32.7 billion and ranks among the top twenty wealthiest people in the world.
Amazon reported a 26 per cent drop in net income in its third quarter Thursday. During after-hours trading, the shares of the company dropped nearly 9 per cent to $1,624 per share in 20 minutes. It of course rebounded slightly, hovering at $1,657 at closing.
It may be mentioned here that Bezos became the richest man in the world for the first time in 2018 and was also the first centibillionaire in the Forbes 400 list that year with a net worth of $160 billion leaving behind Gates at quite some distance.
Bill Gates, meanwhile, has stepped out of Microsoft since 2014, though he remains a board member. He has diversified his wealth over time and has pledged most of his wealth to charity. He is now the co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation- the largest private charitable organisation in the world.