Bezos sells an additional billion dollars in Amazon stock
Jeff Bezos this week sold an additional billion dollars in Amazon stock, bringing his total cash-in in 2019 now to $2.8 billion, and his total cash sales of stock to about $5 billion since he said several years ago that he would sell about $1 billion per year to finance his space company Blue Origin.
He still owns 12% of Amazon.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Jeff Bezos this week sold an additional billion dollars in Amazon stock, bringing his total cash-in in 2019 now to $2.8 billion, and his total cash sales of stock to about $5 billion since he said several years ago that he would sell about $1 billion per year to finance his space company Blue Origin.
He still owns 12% of Amazon.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
If he had a product and customers, he wouldn’t have to sell all his stock.
Even at $3 billion a year, Bezos has about 40 years worth left. And that’s without allowing for future growth in the share price. Even if one of Bezos’s other billionaire buddies cracks the life extension problem, he’ll be able to peel off $3 billion a year effectively forever. But I don’t think he’s going to keep doing that once Blue Origin actually starts making serious money.
That he has extra money to waste could be part of the problem because there isn’t pressure to actually get something done. In the long term, he may not run out of money but it could create a company culture that stagnates the company and prevents it from being able to respond to competition. I think Bezos’ efforts to capture government are an effort to deal with competition and it could be very successful but I don’t like that way of doing business.
To be clear, I want BO to be successful. My criticism comes from a place of wishing they would get there faster and not engage in some practices with perverse incentives for corruption.
Where do you put $2.8B in cash???? Under a VERY BIG mattress?
from the article—
“The sale marked Bezos’ first since October of last year, when he sold $33 million worth of stock, according to forms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This time, Bezos sold more than 950,000 shares over three sales between July 29 and July 31 at a price of about $1,900 per share. After the most recent sale, Bezos still owns 58.1 million shares in Amazon. The sale appears to be Bezos’ largest over such a short period in the history of the company based on dollar value.
>Bezos told reporters in 2017 that he plans to sell about $1 billion in Amazon stock each year to fund his space exploration company, Blue Origin.
>Separately, Bezos and his now ex-wife MacKenzie pledged $2 billion in 2018 to launch the “Day One Fund” to help homeless families and create preschools.
>In his divorce settlement with his wife MacKenzie Bezos, Jeff Bezos kept 75% of the couple’s Amazon stock and voting control over MacKenzie Bezos’ shares.
Amazon declined to comment further on the recent filings. After the sale, Bezos’ net worth will be about $115 billion, Forbes estimated.”
SEC Filing is here
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872419000079/xslF345/wf-form4_156462152514345.xml