Stocks: Jeff Bezos is no longer the richest person

Amazon founder, who was the richest person in the world lost this status after Amazon missed the expectations. The e-commerce giant released the third-quarter report which showed that Amazon was unable to meet the stock market’s expectations.

Jeff Bezos owns 57,610,359 shares of Amazon Based on the most recent information from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  As a result of disappointing earnings Bezos lost almost $7 billion in stock value, more precisely nearly $6.9 billion.

This is not surprising because, on October 24, Amazon stock fell by 9%. On Thursday afternoon. Amazon reported that net income decreased by 26% in the third quarter. As a reminder, this is the worst result of profit decline since 2017. In after-hours trading, Amazon’s stock declined by nearly 9% to $1,624 per share.

It is essential to mention that Bezos became the wealthiest person in the world in 2018 after overtaking Microsoft Founder Bill Gates. Another interesting fact is that same year Bezos also became the first cenibillionaire who appeared on the Forbes 400 list. At that time, his net worth was $160 billion.

The founder of Amazon joined the list of wealthiest Americans more than 20 years ago in 1998. His net worth back then was $1.6 billion. This fact shows that Bezos’s wealth skyrocketed after his e-commerce business started to conquer the hearts of customers.

Stock markets and Amazon

As mentioned above, net income decreased in the third quarter. It felt to $2.1 billion; it means that in comparison with the same period last year net income declined by 26%.

Another problem is that according to Amazon’s forecast operating income in the fourth quarter is going to fall between $1.2 billion and $2.9 billion. This forecast is lower than expected as it is below $4.2 billion.

In 2019, Amazon’s stock increased by 18%, which is slightly lower than the 20% gain for the S&P 500.

Even though it is not directly connected to the stocks, but another reason also influenced the situation. At the beginning of this year, Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos reached a divorce settlement. As part of this settlement, Jeff Bezos transferred a quarter of his Amazon stake to his former wife. As a result, Mackenzie Bezos is worth $32.7 billion.