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Bezos Fortune Jumps $6.5 Billion After Hours in Tech's Wild Ride

Bezos’s fortune struck an all-time as Amazon reported the strongest holiday quarter sales growth in eight years.

Bezos Fortune Jumps $6.5 Billion After Hours in Tech's Wild Ride
Amazon’s Chairman and CEO, Jeff Bezos at a news conference in New York (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Jeff Bezos’s fortune struck an all-time in after-hours trading after Amazon.com Inc. reported the strongest holiday quarter sales growth in eight years.

The net worth of the world’s richest man had already risen $17.4 billion in the first month of the year, and he will see his wealth reach a record $123 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index if the gain holds Friday. Bezos had $116.4 billion on the index at the close of trading Thursday and the projected gain will more than wipe out his $4.9 billion loss that day.

Bezos Fortune Jumps $6.5 Billion After Hours in Tech's Wild Ride

The milestone comes after two days of wild swings for tech tycoons as their companies reported earnings. Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune rose $2.5 billion on Thursday as Facebook Inc. reported strong fourth-quarter earnings. His fortune plummeted in after-market trading Wednesday, ultimately trading up as much as 4.2 percent the following day.

Alphabet Inc.’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin lost as much as $3 billion apiece in after-hours trading Thursday as fourth-quarter earnings missed analysts’ estimates, hobbled by rising payments to web-search partners, higher marketing expenses and troubles at YouTube. The stock recouped much of the initial loss by 5 p.m. in New York.

Pierre Omidyar ended the day down about $100 million as his stake in Paypal Holdings Inc. was cut by $400 million while the value of his EBay Inc. holdings rose $300 million. The seesawing came after EBay unveiled plans to shift its payments business to Dutch company Adyen BV from Paypal.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Metcalf in New York at tmetcalf7@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert LaFranco at rlafranco@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub

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