2 February 2021: Jeff Bezos says he will step down as Amazon CEO
Alongside record holiday-quarter results, Amazon announced that founder Jeff Bezos would hand the CEO job to Andy Jassy, head of its cloud unit, and become executive chair. Bezos had run the company since founding it in 1994 as an online bookstore. The handover was a nod to the fact that Amazon Web Services, not retail, had become its profit engine.
The lesson: Look at where a company makes its money, not just where it makes its noise.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Amazon at the start of 2020 → $2,316 today, vs $2,092 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2020, the latest year on the wheel. That is 2.3 times the money, and $223 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Amazon teaches: Accounting losses are not the same as a bad business; Amazon reinvested its cash flow for years while short-term investors read thin profits as weakness.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $15.00 | $14,667 | $3,301 |
| 2018 | $60.00 | $3,667 | $2,519 |
| 2020 | $95.00 | $2,316 | $2,092 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Amazon? Every starting year and the full story →
More Amazon history
- 15 May 1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share
- 16 June 2017: Amazon buys Whole Foods
- 5 July 1994: A bookstore called Cadabra
- 19 November 2007: Amazon launches the Kindle
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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