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Jeff Bezos Loses US$20 Billion In 2 Days

The founder of Amazon will be just fine.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has lost tens of billions of dollars in wealth since the start of the month, but remains the world's richest person.
India Today
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has lost tens of billions of dollars in wealth since the start of the month, but remains the world's richest person.

Imagine being so rich you can lose US$37 billion (C$48.6 billion) and not even feel it.

That's the boat Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is in, after Amazon stocks tanked over the past several days following unimpressive earnings at the world's largest online retailer.

Since Amazon warned last Thursday that it may see weak sales this holiday season, shares have dropped to around US$1,520 from a peak of US$1,787 last week, down about 15 per cent.

As Amazon's largest shareholder, Bezos saw his net worth drop by US$19.6 billion in just the first two trading days of the week, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It's the largest loss of wealth ever recorded in that data set.

Fear is gripping the stock markets these days, and jittery investors have been dumping the stocks of tech companies that don't exceed or at least match expectations.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq stock index has lost 12 per cent since the start of October, well into "correction" territory. Bezos himself is US$37 (C$48.6 billion) billion poorer than he was at the start of the month, Bloomberg's data shows.

But he probably isn't freaking out. Even after the stock price drop, he remains the world's richest person, with a net worth of US$128 billion. He's about US$28 billion richer than he was a year ago.

So don't feel too badly for Bezos and don't fret over visiting your local bricks-and-mortar retailer. Amazon will be just fine.

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