Jeff Bezos loses $20 billion in hours as Amazon shares slump

Jeff Bezos saw $20.5 billion (R323.1 billion) of his fortune melt away after Amazon.com Inc.’s results left investors disappointed, helping fuel the worst month for technology stocks in years.

Shares of the e-commerce company were down 14% on Friday after it reported a quarterly loss and the slowest sales growth since 2001.

Bezos’s net worth fell to $148.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, from a peak this year of more than $210 billion.

The world’s 500 richest people lost a total of more than $54 billion Friday amid the broader market rout, according to the Bloomberg index.

The benchmark S&P 500 Index fell 3.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index slid 4.5%, closing out its worst month since 2008.

Bezos, 58, the world’s richest person after Elon Musk, is now the third-biggest wealth loser this year, with his fortune dropping nearly $44 billion since Jan. 1.

Amazon is contending with higher labour costs following a hiring binge during the pandemic and a surge in inflation that may hold back sales.

The company posted a net loss of $3.8 billion in the quarter ended March 31, compared with profit of $8.1 billion in the same period last year.

Main Image: Man of Many