Jeff Bezos saw his wealth slashed by $18 billion on Friday, cutting him to No. 3 among the world’s richest, after Amazon’s stock tanked following a downbeat earnings report. As of early Friday, Bezos’ net worth was valued at $152.3 billion — down from $170.5 billion a day earlier, according to Forbes. Now, Bezos is in third place among the world’s richest, behind No. 2 Bernard Arnault, the French luxury tycoon whose current net worth is estimated at $159.8 billion,. The world’s richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is on the verge of acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, has a net worth of $260 billion, Forbes says. The Amazon founder’s wealth has taken a massive hit since it hit a peak of $210 billion last year, making him the world’s richest person at the time. That’s despite his 2019 divorce from MacKenzie Scott, his college sweetheart, who took 25% of his Amazon stock in a settlement. Scott’s net worth also got slashed by Friday’s Amazon rout, dropping $5 billion to $37.7 billion, according to Forbes. Since its peak, Bezos’s net worth has taken a discount of $57 billion, according to Bloomberg News. Indeed, before Friday’s carnage, Bezos’ wealth had already tanked more than 23% year to date as Amazon’s stock has taken a hit from the post-pandemic slowdown in online spending as well as increased labor costs and soaring rates of inflation. Bezos currently owns 55.5 million shares of the company, equal to an 11.1% stake, according to company filings. Bezos’ outsize wealth recently made headlines when Dutch officials reportedly weighed plans to dismantle a section of a 140-year-old bridge to make way for the his $500 million superyacht, which is under construction near Rotterdam. Preservationists said they will bombard the luxury cruiser with rotten eggs if the city follows through. Bezos also lately has been living the high life with gal pal Lauren Sanchez. Most recently, the couple were spotted double-dating with Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson, according to Page Six. Amazon shares fell by more than 12% on Friday after the Seattle-based e-commerce giant reported disappointing earnings for the first quarter of 2022. While in-store sales rose, March is the first month to show decline in online sales since the pandemic began, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending made over the Mastercard payments network and survey estimates for other payments made with cash and checks. Amazon said it earned $7.38 per share — which is short of analysts’ expectations that it would hit $8.36 per share, according to CNBC. The firm also reported $116.44 billion in revenue, which beat forecasts. Analysts expected $116.3 billion. Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing division, also outperformed analysts’ expectations, bringing in $18.44 billion in revenue versus the $18.27 billion that was forecasted. But Amazon’s advertising division fell short of Wall Street’s estimates, generating $7.88 billion versus forecasts of $8.17 billion. Amazon also reported losses of $7.6 billion from its investment in electric car start-up Rivian, which shed half its value in the quarter. Rivian’s losses for the quarter totaled $3.8 billion. Amazon’s revenue jumped 7% in the first quarter — a far cry from the 44% increase in revenue from the same period a year ago. It was the slowest growth rate for the company since the dot-com bust in 2001. Last quarter, Amazon also reported single-digit revenue growth. The numbers don’t bode well for Amazon in the next quarter, as its revenue projections range between 3% and 7%. Amazon expects total revenue this quarter to range from $116 billion to $121 billion — short of the $125.5 billion average analyst estimate, according to CNBC. “The pandemic and subsequent war in Ukraine have brought unusual growth and challenges,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement. Jassy assumed the reins of the company after Bezos stepped down as CEO last year. In his first year as chief executive, Jassy took home $212 million in total compensation. Of that sum, just $175,000 was his base salary. The rest is derived from stock options and other awards. With Post Wires
