FACT OR FICTION...only time will tell!
Headline Story-Jan. 04, 1999
by: cursedinvestor
15495 of 15516
Reuters News Service 01/04/1999 - Seattle, WA - 4:30 PM EST
Shares of NASDAQ listed Amazon.com (AMZN) rose $18,000 today to close
at $75,002-3/16 making it the most expensive listed stock on any exchange,
surpassing Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa) which held the title for 21 years.
Jeffrey P. Bezos, Chairman, President, and CEO of Amazon had this to say
about the new honor bestowed upon his company's stock, "Frankly, I'm quite
surprised, to say the least. That is, I'm surprised it took so damned long. We at
Amazon had a pool going to see who could pick the correct date when we'd pass
Berkshire Hathaway's price. After November's action in our stock price I put in
my dollar with a prediction of December 11th but we had to wait all the way until
the first trading day of '99."
"At least we're over the Berkshire price hurdle, so it should be onward and
upward from here."
When asked how he came up with the idea for Amazon.com, Bezos replied, "I've
always had a passion for selling. I was selling my old comic books on the front
lawn until my early thirties when my mother finally put the lid on it and told me to
get the hell out of her house. Also, I was starting to run out of inventory. The only
comic book I had left to sell was a SpiderMan from 1964 that had the cover
ripped off. I figured the only way I could get rid of that one was to sell it from the
'net so the buyer couldn't get a look at what he was getting."
Bezos was asked when he thought Amazon would finally turn a profit. He replied,
"What year is it? 1999? Definitely by the following millennium. Not 2000, 3000.
We'll definitely show a profit by then. We'll be too concerned with Y2k problems
in the 2000 millennium to show a profit before Y3k."
"This is great", said 9-year old accidental investor Bobby Jones of Ventura, CA.
"I accidentally bought 100 shares of this at $3 per share in early 1998 when my
father said I could use his computer to buy a book online."
"I didn't realize he was logged into his brokerage account at the time and
somehow I hit the keys so he ended up with 100 shares of Amazon."
"He was pretty pissed off at me at the time, but now he says he's worth over $7.5
Million dollars so he's gonna buy me a bike if I don't tell Mom that he's planning
to run off with his 23 year old secretary."
Reuters News Service
-pam |
