Poor Jeff, down to last $28B
Jeff Bezos had more fun this year being Amazon’s CEO than he did being Amazon’s biggest shareholder.
The Seattlebased billionaire saw his personal wealth tumble in 2014 by $8 billion, or 23 percent, to $28 billion — a painful markdown that works out to losing nearly $22 million a day.
That ranks Bezos (left) as the thirdbiggest loser of 2014 among the 400 richest people in the world, according to a ranking of billionaires by Bloomberg.
Only rightwing casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson and Ikea founder Ingvar Kemprad, who lost $9 billion and $8.4 billion, respectively, lost larger piles of their wealth, according to Bloomberg.
The lost loot also leaves Bezos, ranked No. 23 as of Friday, trailing two places behind his fastascending rival — Jack Ma.
The Alibaba founder vaulted into the No. 21 spot with a net worth of $28.7 billion as he reaped more than $25 billion with the Chinabased Internet re tailer’s September debut on the New York Stock Exchange.
Bezos’s 84millionshare stake in Amazon, equal to 18 percent of the company, has tanked more than 22 percent this year as Wall Street has grown increasingly impatient with his freespending habits as CEO of the company.
This year, Bezos has ordered lavish investments in everything from the acquisition of videogaming site Twitch to new warehouses to drone research.
The result: surprisingly wide losses that have spooked Wall Street, even as the company’s sales have continued to swell.
On Friday, Amazon said it added 10 million members during the quarter to its Prime freeshipping service — an operation that is seen by analysts as costly to maintain.
By contrast, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has watched his personal fortune surge by $11 billion this year to $35.7 billion, landing him the No. 13 spot overall.
The socialnetworking site’s shares have surged despite Zuckerberg’s own controversial February acquisition of textmessaging service WhatsApp for $22 billion.
Elsewhere this year, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has reclaimed the spot as the world’s richest man as his fortune surged to $87.5 billion, up $9 billion from a year ago.
Gates edged out No. 2 Warren Buffett, whose wealth soared to $74 billion as he added $13.2 billion to his coffers. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim fell into third place as his fortune shrank slightly to $72.2 billion.
Amazon shares rose 2 percent on Friday, to $309.09.