The dismal Q3 results from Amazon, resulted in founder Jeff Bezos slipping for a brief period from his position as the world’s richest person. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose net worth is $105.7 billion, was placed at the top spot in that period.
As Amazon reported third quarter earnings per share of $4.23 versus consensus estimates for $4.59, its shares fell by 9 percent in after-hours trading. As a result, Bezos’ fortune was knocked down to $103.9 billion. Though shares of Amazon fell again on Friday, the drop was around 1 percent and that put Bezos’ net worth at $109.9 billion, placing him back at the number one spot.
Bill Gates had been the richest man for 24 years before Bezos took the crown from him in 2018. At present Gates is just $4.1 billion behind Bezos as the number two richest.
With Amazon continuing to invest heavily in infrastructure to support its one-day shipping program, Bezos might lose his position again in the coming days. Recently, Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said that the cost of one-day delivery program will nearly double to a figure of $1.5 billion during the holiday season. The e-commerce giant is also investing heavily on the growing cloud business and reinforcing its advertising sales force.
Amazon gave fourth-quarter revenue guidance in the range of $80 billion and $86.5 billion which is much below the expected estimate of $87.4 billion. The company’s net income also dropped to $2.1 billion, down 26 percent from the figure of $2.9 billion, a year ago.
Another factor that resulted in the dip in Bezos’ wealth is the transfer of 4 percent of his Amazon shares to his wife of 25 years, Mackenzie Bezos, as a part of the divorce settlement. MacKenzie’s 19.7 million shares are worth around $36.8 billion, making her the third richest woman in the world.
Bezos was first featured in the The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 1998, one year after Amazon went public, with a net worth of $1.6 billion. At present he has around 12 percent stakes in Amazon.
Unlike Bezos, Bill Gates does not have to depend so heavily on the performance of Microsoft. Since stepping down as the chairman of Microsoft in 2014, he has diversified his assets over the years. Gates presently owns just around 1 percent of Microsoft shares. He is also the co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest private charitable foundation in the world.
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