Amazon to become world's most valuable company

Amazon to become world’s most valuable company

Ioana Erdei 08/01/2019 | 14:32

Amazon, formed 25 years ago, has eclipsed Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable listed company, according to BBC.

The online giant was worth USD 797bn (GBP 634bn) when the US stock market closed on Monday after rising 3.4% and moved past Microsoft, valued at $789bn.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is the world’s wealthiest man, with riches of USD 135bn, according to Bloomberg’s billionaire index.

It is the first time Amazon has held the top position. The share prices of US tech giants have been on a rollercoaster in recent months on worries about sales and trade tensions.

How it all started

Founded by Mr Bezos in 1994, Amazon started life as a niche second-hand book seller and has become an online retailer of items ranging from fresh food to clothes. The firm was created in a garage in a suburb of Seattle, Washington.

It was originally called “Cadabra,” (as in “abracadabra”) and in 1995 sold its first book – Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought, by Douglas Hofstadter.

By early 1996, Amazon was selling books online throughout the US.

The business was floated on the stock exchange in 1997, raising $54m. As a result, Mr Bezos joined the ranks of the world’s richest business people before he turned 35 years of age.