Bezos might lose his title as world’s richest person

Taylor Telford, Washington Post

Publishing

Friday, October 25, 2019 10:37 AM CDT

Amazon Mogul Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world for those who have Bill Gates, a neighbor in Seattle, for 20 years after third-quarter performance was lower than expected for e-commerce conglomerates. You may lose the title.

According to Bloomberg billionaires, Amazon shares fell more than 8{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} to $ 1,624 after a few hours Thursday after e-commerce giants reported a first quarterly decline in profits since 2017. It shook him behind Microsoft founder $ 105.7 billion. The ranking will be updated after Bloomberg's market close, so the switch won't be formalized until Friday's trading closes.

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On Friday morning, the stock traded near $ 1,738, down 2.3{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} from Thursday's closing price.

Bezos has been the richest man in the world since 2017. His net worth skyrocketed to $ 116 billion, finishing Gates' 24th consecutive year of top management. A potential change in Bezos status is related to the transfer of a quarter of Amazon's stake, worth about $ 36 billion, to McKenzie Bezos, under a divorce agreement earlier this year. The contract made her one of the 20 richest in the world.

Of course, these rankings are ultimately paper chases because numbers fluctuate and do not account for all assets. Bezos also owns the aerospace company Blue Origin, Washington Post, and owns a wide range of real estate.

According to Forbes, Gates was well aware that it was not his charity. According to Forbes, since retiring from Microsoft in 2014, Gates has excluded all shares except 1{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} ​​of the company's share. And he has donated more than $ 35 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has been chairing with his wife since 1994. The world's largest charitable foundation.

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Microsoft is currently the most valuable company in the world, with a market cap of more than $ 1 trillion. Betting on cloud computing has resulted in a 21{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} increase in revenue this quarter by allowing customers to rent computing power from Microsoft without buying their own products. But it still lags behind Amazon, which created a market with Amazon Web Services.

Amazon's third-quarter performance disappointed Wall Street with a drop of more than 25{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} year-over-year to $ 2.1 billion on Thursday, driven by lower profits on faster shipping. The company's worldwide shipping costs rose 46 percent year-over-year to $ 9.6 billion, and Amazon will spend $ 1.5 billion on shipping in the fourth quarter, said Brian Olsavsky, chief financial officer, Thursday.

Earlier this year, shares rose nearly 16{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} ahead of earnings reports.