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All of his wealth is wrapped up in Amazon stock. If he tried to sell 2/3 of his stock, not only would Amazon's share price tank (the founder is selling most of

by skizm 6y ago

All of his wealth is wrapped up in Amazon stock. If he tried to sell 2/3 of his stock, not only would Amazon's share price tank (the founder is selling most of his stock), but he would lose control of Amazon and his net worth would be cut in half or more due to the stock tanking while he was selling. Jeff Bezos' net worth is simply the amount of shares he controls in Amazon multiplied by whatever the current price of the stock is. It is entirely theoretical and there is no real way for him to actually obtain his "net worth" in cash.

baxtr 6y ago
Isn’t that the case with most “high net worth individuals”? I am pretty sure it is not “entirely theoretical”.
- aliceryhl 6y ago
  Well, many of them sure, but not all of them. For example, Bill Gates has his wealth distributed across a wide range of investments, which means that Gates' ability to turn his wealth into cash is much much greater than Jeff's. As for the theoretical part, billionaires with all of their wealth tied up in a single company generally only have access to billionaire kind of money through loans with incredibly generous terms that they pay back by selling a bit of their stocks every year.
- skizm 6y ago
  The actual number $135B (or whatever it is now) is entirely theoretical since there is no way for Jeff Bezos to actually obtain his net worth in cash.
Zenst 6y ago
He wouldn't need to even touch the shares, the share itself give him control of Amazon and with that, he could institute such change offset against profit margin. Though many of use foresee many jobs at amazon being candidates for robots and with that, can imagine the last thing Amazon wants are unions that would get in the way of such plans, if such plans were there. Kinda a case of the shoe fits, and drive against empowering those who you eventually down the line, will replace and make redundant. Also the supply and demand factor, so many companies will only increase employee incentives/remunerations if they find it hard to get and in the current climate, they kinda have lots of people willing to endure what they offer as it's better than nothing. Which is kinda the crux we have seen playout for eon's and sadly, don't see that changing anytime soon.
psychometry 6y ago
Who's saying he has to sell his stock? He should be giving it away to his employees, all the way to the lowest-wage factory and warehouse workers. They're the ones who make the company work, and he doesn't give a shit about them.
- throwawyyrep 6y ago
  Jeff has been building Amazon since 1994. Do you seriously believe the moral thing for him to do is to give away his shares to some low-skilled, easily replaceable employee who is just looking to make a quick buck ?
  - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
    > some low-skilled, easily replaceable employee It's very funny how the 'job creators' weren't able to do anything against coronavirus closing and everyone staying at home. If they're so damn good, why did their stocks crater during the COVID-19 quarantine?
    - sukilot 6y ago
      You might want to check the stock market prices before repeating that argument.
  - claudeganon 6y ago
    The people who are strapped to activity monitors in overheated warehouses, packing millions of orders each day, risking contracting COVID, do more to build Amazon and ensure it’s continued existence than Bezos has ever done.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    That sounds exactly like how compensation works?
  - astura 6y ago
    It's not exactly unprecedented, its is often what happens in an employee owned company. Example: https://abcnews.go.com/WN/owner-multi-million-dollar-company-hands-business-employees/story?id=9875038 https://abcnews.go.com/WN/owner-multi-million-dollar-company... >Moore said he's gotten countless buy-out offers over the years, but he couldn't envision selling the business to a stranger. "It's the only business decision that I could make," he said. "I don't think there's anybody worthy to run this company but the people who built it. I have employees with me right now that have been with me for 30 years. They just were committed to staying with me now and they're going to own the company."
yummypaint 6y ago
You make it sound like selling all at once and flooding the market is the only option. He could slowly sell off shares over many years and thereby exchange personal power at amazon for tangible good in the world. He choses to maintain his position because that's where his priorities are. He's within his rights to do that, but let's not pretend one of the most powerful people in the world has his hands tied.
- reese_john 6y ago
  Isn't he doing exactly that with Blue Origin? AFAIK he's selling about $1b of AMZN stock every year to fund it. He's also recently pledged $10b to fight climate change.
hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
So distribute some of his net worth in Amazon shares, no need to convert to cash first.
- missedthecue 6y ago
  Why would he give control of the company he's been building got 25 years to some low level employees who don't give a shit? I swear, the slacktivists went nuts over the "fight for $15!!!", Amazon gives them $15 and suddenly it's not enough all the sudden.
  - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
    Do you need another boot or did you get enough protein from that last one?
  - hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
    To clarify, I'm not arguing one way or the other, I'm just stating that the fact that Bezos' net worth is largely in Amazon shares vs. cash is pretty irrelevant to a discussion of the potential distribution of that wealth.
  - sukilot 6y ago
    Jeff Bezos wanted to be a billionaire. He got a $billion, and it's not enough all of a sudden.
ColanR 6y ago
I like to think that dilemma is why Bezos has pledged a billion a year to invest in Blue Origin. Nice excuse to extract some cash without spooking the market.

by skizm 6y ago

baxtr 6y ago

Isn’t that the case with most “high net worth individuals”? I am pretty sure it is not “entirely theoretical”.

aliceryhl 6y ago
Well, many of them sure, but not all of them. For example, Bill Gates has his wealth distributed across a wide range of investments, which means that Gates' ability to turn his wealth into cash is much much greater than Jeff's. As for the theoretical part, billionaires with all of their wealth tied up in a single company generally only have access to billionaire kind of money through loans with incredibly generous terms that they pay back by selling a bit of their stocks every year.
skizm 6y ago
The actual number $135B (or whatever it is now) is entirely theoretical since there is no way for Jeff Bezos to actually obtain his net worth in cash.

Zenst 6y ago

He wouldn't need to even touch the shares, the share itself give him control of Amazon and with that, he could institute such change offset against profit margin. Though many of use foresee many jobs at amazon being candidates for robots and with that, can imagine the last thing Amazon wants are unions that would get in the way of such plans, if such plans were there. Kinda a case of the shoe fits, and drive against empowering those who you eventually down the line, will replace and make redundant. Also the supply and demand factor, so many companies will only increase employee incentives/remunerations if they find it hard to get and in the current climate, they kinda have lots of people willing to endure what they offer as it's better than nothing. Which is kinda the crux we have seen playout for eon's and sadly, don't see that changing anytime soon.

psychometry 6y ago

Who's saying he has to sell his stock? He should be giving it away to his employees, all the way to the lowest-wage factory and warehouse workers. They're the ones who make the company work, and he doesn't give a shit about them.

throwawyyrep 6y ago
Jeff has been building Amazon since 1994. Do you seriously believe the moral thing for him to do is to give away his shares to some low-skilled, easily replaceable employee who is just looking to make a quick buck ?
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  > some low-skilled, easily replaceable employee It's very funny how the 'job creators' weren't able to do anything against coronavirus closing and everyone staying at home. If they're so damn good, why did their stocks crater during the COVID-19 quarantine?
  - sukilot 6y ago
    You might want to check the stock market prices before repeating that argument.
- claudeganon 6y ago
  The people who are strapped to activity monitors in overheated warehouses, packing millions of orders each day, risking contracting COVID, do more to build Amazon and ensure it’s continued existence than Bezos has ever done.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  That sounds exactly like how compensation works?
- astura 6y ago
  It's not exactly unprecedented, its is often what happens in an employee owned company. Example: https://abcnews.go.com/WN/owner-multi-million-dollar-company-hands-business-employees/story?id=9875038 https://abcnews.go.com/WN/owner-multi-million-dollar-company... >Moore said he's gotten countless buy-out offers over the years, but he couldn't envision selling the business to a stranger. "It's the only business decision that I could make," he said. "I don't think there's anybody worthy to run this company but the people who built it. I have employees with me right now that have been with me for 30 years. They just were committed to staying with me now and they're going to own the company."

yummypaint 6y ago

You make it sound like selling all at once and flooding the market is the only option. He could slowly sell off shares over many years and thereby exchange personal power at amazon for tangible good in the world. He choses to maintain his position because that's where his priorities are. He's within his rights to do that, but let's not pretend one of the most powerful people in the world has his hands tied.

reese_john 6y ago
Isn't he doing exactly that with Blue Origin? AFAIK he's selling about $1b of AMZN stock every year to fund it. He's also recently pledged $10b to fight climate change.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago

So distribute some of his net worth in Amazon shares, no need to convert to cash first.

missedthecue 6y ago
Why would he give control of the company he's been building got 25 years to some low level employees who don't give a shit? I swear, the slacktivists went nuts over the "fight for $15!!!", Amazon gives them $15 and suddenly it's not enough all the sudden.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  Do you need another boot or did you get enough protein from that last one?
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  To clarify, I'm not arguing one way or the other, I'm just stating that the fact that Bezos' net worth is largely in Amazon shares vs. cash is pretty irrelevant to a discussion of the potential distribution of that wealth.
- sukilot 6y ago
  Jeff Bezos wanted to be a billionaire. He got a $billion, and it's not enough all of a sudden.

ColanR 6y ago

I like to think that dilemma is why Bezos has pledged a billion a year to invest in Blue Origin. Nice excuse to extract some cash without spooking the market.