SEATTLE -- Jeff Bezos on Thursday took something away from a billionaire neighbor in the Seattle area, Bill Gates -- the mantle of world's richest person.
A 1 percent pop in the shares of Amazon.com -- the Internet company Bezos founded, which accounts for the vast majority of his wealth -- was enough to bump him over the wealth of Gates, the philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder, according to a real-time list of billionaires by Forbes.com, which has tallied the fortunes of the super-rich for decades.
Forbes now estimates the wealth of Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, at $90.6 billion, compared with $90 billion for Gates.
Bezos has added tens of billions of dollars in wealth -- at least on paper -- over the past year as Amazon shares surged more than 40 percent during that time period. The shares fell $6.80, or less than 1 percent, to close Thursday at $1,046. The shares have increased 40 percent since the beginning of the year.
According to a filing with securities regulators in April, Bezos holds nearly 81 million shares of Amazon -- almost 17 percent of the company. Forbes also estimates the value of his other investments -- including his ownership of newspaper The Washington Post and the rocket company Blue Origin -- and cash from the sale of securities as part of its wealth calculations. Bezos has said he sells about $1 billion a year worth of Amazon stock to finance Blue Origin.
Gates has been at the top of the Forbes list of billionaires for 18 out of the past 23 years.
Most of Gates' wealth originates from Microsoft, which has seen its stock rise to new highs lately. A Microsoft filing from October said he held nearly 191 million shares of Microsoft -- about 2.46 percent of its stock -- which are currently worth about $14.1 billion.
But Gates has spent years diversifying his investments.
Kerry Dolan, an assistant managing editor for Forbes, said the publication also considers extensive assets Gates holds through his Cascade Investments, which has stakes in private equity, real estate and public companies. Forbes does not include his more than $31 billion in contributions to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in its wealth calculations.
Drew Herdener, a spokesman for Amazon, declined to comment on Bezos' move to the top of the Forbes list. Naomi Zeitlin, a spokesman for Gates, declined to comment.
Amazon on Thursday reported second-quarter profit of $197 million, or 40 cents a share.
The results missed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.40 per share.
The online retailer posted revenue of $37.96 billion in the period, topping Wall Street forecasts. Ten analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $37.21 billion.
Business on 07/28/2017