Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is said to have lost as much as $7 billion in stock value on Thursday after the e-commerce company's stocks dipped over nine percent after trading hours. Some industry experts said Bezos has lost his title as the world's richest man after the massive losses.
According to CNBC, the Amazon stock's plummeting move on Thursday was driven largely by anxious investors who have been waiting in anticipation of the e-commerce giant's earnings report for the third quarter.
Bezos owns 57,610,359 Amazon shares and a stock percentage dip of nine percent means he lost almost $6.9 billion. Finance experts noted that if the stock experiences a similar diving move on Friday's closing, there is a huge chance the Amazon chief will lose his richest person title to Microsoft's Bill Gates.
As of Thursday, October 24, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which provides the public with a daily insight into the wealth and net worth of the world's billionaires, has Bezos on top of the ladder.
After Gates on the second spot is Chairman and Chief Executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton SE, Bernard Arnault. On the fourth place Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet, and sitting at fifth is Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.
While Friday's after-hours trading has yet to see whether the Amazon stock will recover, Forbes reported that Gates has finally reclaimed the world's richest title that he lost to Bezos last year.
Bloomberg has yet to update its index for October 25 but many analysts are expecting Gates to get back on his usual spot this year. The Microsoft co-founder previously held the spot for 24 years before Bezos amassed $160 billion in net worth in 2018.
It is worth noting, though, that there were other factors that affected Bezos' dwindled net worth. In August, Bezos had to give up four percent of his stakes in the company to his former wife, MacKenzie Bezos.
At that time, multiple outlets reported that regulatory filings showed Bezos' transfer of around 19.7 million in Amazon shares to his former wife as part of their divorce settlement. According to Business Insider, the transfer paved the way for MacKenzie to become the world's, third-wealthiest woman.
Aside from being the third richest woman in the world, MacKenzie has also become the second-largest individual stockholder in Amazon. It remains to be seen how the change in wealth figures will affect investor sentiment on the e-commerce platform.
Amazon reported Q3 2019 revenue of $70.0 billion, with its cloud business accounting for 35 percent in growth for the quarter.
