Amazon is a monster of a company. It seems to grow at will and conquer different industries and segments within industries. Nothing puts fear in the hearts of a business like an announcement that Amazon is entering your space.
One of the reasons Amazon has been able to grow so many different businesses at one time and purchase others is the companies equity valuation. The company was losing money hand over fist for most of its existence and yet, investors gave the company a valuation based on sales and sales growth. Amazon was in a great place. The company did not have to provide an operating return on capital. All they had to do was grow revenues and the company had investors fighting over its stock.
In the final analysis, the company did not really have a cost of equity capital. They could suffer operating losses and investors would still give the company capital. The grand hope was that the company would build a number of monopolies and eventually earn extraordinary profits. Investors were playing the long game.
Now the company has turned the corner and starting to make some money, one has to ask if the company can grow into its valuation from an earnings perspective. Time will tell, but we think top-line growth will slow markedly in the years ahead and earnings will grow. But will it grow enough?
Given the vast array of companies that make up Amazon and the keen interest in the company by investors, we thought it might be useful for readers to take a deeper look into the company and the empire Bezos build with a graphic from VisualCapitalist.Com.
With a fortune largely tied to his 79 million Amazon shares, the net worth of Jeff Bezos has continued to rise. Most recently, the Amazon founder was even able to surpass Bill Gates on the global wealth leaderboard with $137 billion to his name – however, this ascent to the very top may be extremely short-lived.
On January 9th, 2019, Jeff Bezos announced on Twitter that he was divorcing MacKenzie Bezos, his wife of 25 years. While the precise ramifications of the news are not yet clear, it’s anticipated that MacKenzie Bezos could end up with a considerable portion of shares in Amazon as a result.
There is much to be decided as the world’s wealthiest couple splits their assets – but for now, here is a list of what Jeff Bezos owns today.
The Jeff Bezos Empire in 2019
The obvious centerpiece to the Jeff Bezos Empire is the 16% ownership stake in Amazon.com.
However, beyond that, there is a wide variety of other investments and acquisitions that Jeff Bezos has made through Amazon or his other investment vehicles. These range from household names to more secretive endeavors and are worth looking at to truly understand his assets and fortune.
Amazon.com
Amazon makes acquisitions and investments that relate to the company’s core business and future ambitions. This includes acquisitions of Whole Foods ($13.7 billion in 2017), Zappos.com ($1.2 billion in 2009), PillPack ($1 billion in 2018), Twitch.tv ($970 million in 2014), and Kiva Systems ($780 million in 2012).
This also includes investments in everything from failed dot-com company Kozmo.com (2000) to Twilio, which successfully IPO’d in 2016.
Bezos Expeditions
Bezos Expeditions manages Jeff Bezos’ venture capital investments. Over the years, this venture arm has put money into Twitter, Domo, Juno Therapeutics, Workday, General Fusion, Rethink Robotics, Business Insider, MakerBot, and Stack Overflow.
More recent investments include GRAIL, a startup that recently raised over $900 million to cure cancer before it happens, as well as EverFi, an ed-tech startup.
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos also invests money on a personal level. He was an angel investor in Google in 1998 and has also put money in Uber and Airbnb. (Note: these last two companies are listed on the Bezos Expeditions website, but on Crunchbase they are listed as personal investments.)
Nash Holdings LLC
Nash Holdings is the private company owned by Bezos that bought The Washington Post for $250 million.
Bezos Family Foundation
The BFF is run by Jeff Bezos’ parents and is funded through Amazon stock. It focuses on early education and has also made an investment in LightSail Education’s $11 million Series B round.
Blue Origin
Finally, it’s also worth noting that Jeff Bezos is the founder of Blue Origin, an aerospace company that is competing with SpaceX in mankind’s final frontier.
Note: This article and infographic were originally published on June 20, 2017. Both have been updated as of January 11, 2019, to include more up-to-date acquisitions and investments.
