Founder and CEO, Amazon.com NET WORTH $2 billion AGE 34 ADDRESSwww.amazon.com BIO It is ironic that one of the biggest successes
on the Internet sells books, a product that the medium was
supposed to make obsolete. We still might see the rise of devices
that download novels like software, but for the present,
Amazon.com is making a mint selling the old-fashioned article.
Bezos, a former hedge-fund manager, became a multibillionaire
this year when Amazon.com's stock skyrocketed. And this summa cum
laude graduate of Princeton is smart enough to realize that these
paper gains could be here today, gone tomorrow. He still drives a
Honda. 1998 POWER PLAY Bezos has said he wants Amazon.com to be
not just a bookstore but a multifaceted e-commerce destination as
well. He got closer to that dream this year with his purchase of
two Net start-ups, Junglee and PlanetAll, and the addition of CD
sales to his site. An online contest, "Murder Makes the
Magazine"--in which customers competed to add on sections to a
story that was started by noted writer John Updike--was a
marketing coup, although the results were not exactly the most
sterling prose. PLACE YOUR BETS At its initial public offering
last May, Amazon.com's stock was $18 a share. A year later, it
had risen to about $40. In little more than a month this summer,
the stock tripled, hitting $140 in July, then plummeted to around
$70 in late August. Still sounds like pretty amazing results, but
be warned: Amazon.com has yet to show a profit. This is the
reason Fortune magazine recently called it a stock for traders
and not investors.
