IT goes without saying, our lives would be VERY different without Amazon Prime in our lives.
From streaming to shopping, it has got it all – and the owner is one VERY rich man.
Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, although in early 2021 he announced that he would be stepping down as CEO of the company.
Along with Jeff, the top individual insider shareholders of the company are Andrew Jassy, and Jeffrey Blackburn.
The top institutional shareholders are Advisor Group Inc., Vanguard Group Inc., and BlackRock Inc.
Jeff is the company’s biggest shareholder, with 55.5 million shares.
Amazon.com Inc. was founded in July 1994 by Jeff as an online bookstore, and has since ballooned into the world’s largest e-commerce company.
At first he set up business in the garage of his rented home.
Jeff selected the name by looking through a dictionary and he settled on “Amazon” because it was a place that was “exotic and different”, just as he had envisioned his Internet enterprise.
As Amazon has evolved, it has expanded to offer a seemingly limitless range of products such as video games, software, electronics, clothing, toys, and food.
The site’s entertainment streaming service also produces its own movies and TV shows, and Amazon Music provides access to millions of songs.
He added “Prime” to the name in 2005 when he started the site’s membership scheme.
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As it stands in 2021, Jeff is currently the world’s richest man
He is currently ranked number 1 on Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people.
Jeff has a massive wealth of $193billion (£140billion).
His net worth took a brief hit in 2019 when he finalised his divorce from MacKenzie Scott, who helped him start Amazon.
As part of the settlement, Jeff keeps voting control over his entire stake even though his former ex wife retains ownership of 25% of those shares.
