Amazon, bolstered by boosted sales amid the coronavirus pandemic, is hiring another 100,000 people in the U.S. and Canada to stay on top of demand, the e-commerce giant <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.aboutamazon.com/operations/creating-more-job-opportunities-in-operations" target="_blank">announced</a> on Monday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Full and part-time positions have opened up across 100 new operations sites opening this month, which include “fulfillment centers, delivery stations, sortation centers,” among other sites.



It comes as the company has already announced tens of thousands of jobs this year alone, with 100,000 in March and 75,000 in April, while earlier this month, Amazon opened up&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.aboutamazon.com/job-creation-and-investment/amazon-announces-career-day-2020" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">33,000 jobs</a>&nbsp;in its corporate and tech divisions.



The company’s vice president of global customer fulfillment, Alicia Boler Davis, added in an interview with&nbsp;<a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-workers/amazon-to-hire-100000-more-workers-in-its-latest-job-spree-this-year-idUKKBN2650SR" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a>&nbsp;that the company will introduce automation in its new buildings, although the technology is designed to work with employees.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



As the coronavirus pandemic has seen everyday life ground to a standstill, Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, has prospered from serving homebound shoppers with the last few months marking the best in its 26-year history. In July, Amazon posted record second-quarter earnings of $5.2 billion, with sales up 40% over last year to nearly $90 billion, although it saw a 13% fall in revenue from its physical stores. The company’s hiring spree over the past year reflects its need to keep up with the surge in demand from homebound shoppers. But the company and CEO Jeff Bezos have come under fire from existing and former employees, who allege the company failed to adequately protect warehouse workers from the health and economic risks of Covid-19.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



560,000. That’s how many people Amazon employs worldwide, according to the company’s<a href="https://www.aboutamazon.co.uk/working-at-amazon/our-people" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;blog</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos topped Forbes’ list of 400 richest Americans for the third year in a row, with a net worth of $183.8 billion as of Monday morning. Earlier this year, Bezos, who holds an 11.2% stake in Amazon, became the first person to surpass a net worth of more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020/08/26/worlds-richest-billionaire-jeff-bezos-first-200-billion/?utm_source=TWITTER&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=3629826204&amp;utm_campaign=sprinklrForbesMainTwitter#13b38a024db7">$200 billion</a>&nbsp;late last month.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://blog.aboutamazon.com/operations/creating-more-job-opportunities-in-operations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Creating more job opportunities in operations</a>&nbsp;(Amazon)



-By Isabel Togoh, Forbes Staff

Amazon Unveils Its First Smartphone

Amazon Is Hiring A Further 100,000 People To Keep Up With Pandemic-Induced Demand

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST



After briefly becoming the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2020/08/31/elon-musk-100-billion-net-worth/#7d8e258880ed">fifth centibillionaire in the world</a> on Monday, August 31, Tesla CEO Elon Musk ended the week down $9.9 billion as tech companies — and their founders’ fortunes — took a hit.



While tech companies have largely been driving the stock market’s surge during the pandemic, heavyweights like Facebook and Amazon took a spill on Thursday and Friday during what some observers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bd5804ef-94d0-45b4-9c2b-8fb7996ec5f6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">are calling a correction</a>. The S&amp;P 500 was down 2.3% for the week, while the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 1.8%. Tesla stock started to falter on Wednesday,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/02/teslas-largest-outside-shareholder-reduces-holding-citing-portfolio-restrictions.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">after news broke that</a>&nbsp;its largest outside shareholder, Scottish investment firm Ballie Gifford, reduced its stake in the company. The stock ended the week down 5.5%.&nbsp;



Even with the decline, Musk is four times wealthier than he was a year ago, with a net worth of $87.9 billion. He is currently the fifth richest person in the world, $5.5 billion ahead of Warren Buffett.



The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, hit a milestone last week when he became the first person tracked by Forbes with a fortune that exceeded $200 billion. With Amazon shares worth 3% less than a week ago at the market close on Friday, Bezos’ fortune dropped  $5.8 billion to $193.5 billion. His ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott (net worth: $62.4 billion), is $2 billion poorer this week.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="425" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1148401100-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46514" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1148401100-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1148401100-594x594-1-300x215.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 6, 2019. (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune fell $4 billion as Facebook shares dropped 3.7% in the past week. He’s been more vocal than ever before about political misinformation on the social media platform and announced steps to mitigate the problem. On Wednesday, he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced a&nbsp;<a href="https://gizmodo.com/zuckerberg-drops-300-million-to-support-u-s-elections-1844921516" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$300 million donation</a>&nbsp;to support voting infrastructure, such as protective equipment for poll workers and polling place rentals. On Thursday, he said that Facebook would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/09/03/facebook-will-block-new-political-ads-in-the-week-leading-up-to-election-day/#30873f0b7950">block new political ads</a>&nbsp;during the week before Election Day, and flag posts in which a candidate tries to claim a premature victory.&nbsp;



Quicken Loans cofounder Dan Gilbert had a chaotic week as shares of the online mortgage lender’s parent company, Rocket Companies, soared midweek ahead of the company’s first earnings report since it went public in August. Although <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.thestreet.com/investing/rocket-rkt-earnings-mortgage-initial-public-offering" target="_blank">it reported strong profits</a>, the stock corrected itself and ended the week down more than 13%. As of Friday, September 4, Gilbert is worth $51 billion — $7.3 billion less than last week, but nearly eight times richer than he was a year ago.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



HERE ARE THE BILLIONAIRES WHOSE FORTUNES FELL THE MOST THIS WEEK.



The net worth change is from close of markets Friday, August 28, to Friday, September 4.



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">1 | ELON MUSK</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$87.9 BILLION, DOWN $9.9 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH |&nbsp;TESLA



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">2 | DAN GILBERT</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$51 BILLION, DOWN $7.3 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | QUICKEN LOANS



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">3 | JEFF BEZOS</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$193.5 BILLION, DOWN&nbsp;$5.8 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES﻿



SOURCE OF WEALTH | AMAZON



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">4 |  STEVE BALLMER</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$72.9 BILLION, DOWN $4.1 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | MICROSOFT



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">5 | MARK ZUCKERBERG</h4>



NET WORTH | &nbsp;$103.8 BILLION, DOWN $4 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | FACEBOOK



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">6 | LARRY ELLISON</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$74.2 BILLION, DOWN $2.7 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | ORACLE



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">7 | AMANCIO ORTEGA</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$65.3 BILLION, DOWN $2.5 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;SPAIN



SOURCE OF WEALTH | ZARA



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">8 | MA HUATENG</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$57.5 BILLION, DOWN $2.3 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;CHINA



SOURCE OF WEALTH | TENCENT



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">9 | LARRY PAGE</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$70.6 BILLION, DOWN $2.2 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | GOOGLE



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">10 | SERGEY BRIN</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$68.7 BILLION, DOWN $2.1 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | GOOGLE



-Ariel Shapiro, Forbes Staff

Key Speakers At The Satellite 2020 Conference

Elon Musk Down Nearly $10 Billion In One Week As Tech Stocks Plunge

The world&#8217;s richest person,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?list=rtb/">Jeff Bezos</a>, is wealthier than he&#8217;s ever been. Early Wednesday he crossed a milestone previously unseen in the nearly four decades&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has been tracking net worths: With Amazon stock edging up 2% as of Wednesday afternoon, Bezos&#8217; net worth is up by $4.9 billion, making the 56-year-old the world&#8217;s first-ever person to amass a $200 billion fortune.



As of 1:50 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, the Amazon founder and CEO is worth $204.6 billion—nearly $90 billion more than the world&#8217;s second-richest person,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/?list=rtb/">Bill Gates</a>, who&#8217;s currently worth $116.1 billion.&nbsp;



Even adjusting for inflation, Forbes believes Bezos&#8217; fortune is the largest ever amassed. The person to come closest is Gates, who was the world&#8217;s first-ever centibillionaire. Near the height of the dot-com bubble, when Microsoft reached its then-peak in 1999, Gates&#8217; net worth surpassed $100 billion, roughly $158 billion in today&#8217;s dollars.



Fueled by the change in consumer habits as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon stock is up nearly 80% since the beginning of the year, and Bezos&#8217; net worth, which was roughly $115 billion on January 1, has skyrocketed in tandem. Bezos’ roughly 11% stake in Amazon makes up more than 90% of his fortune. He also owns the&nbsp;Washington Post, aerospace company Blue Origin and other private investments.



Bezos would be even richer had he not gone through the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/2019/08/01/mackenzie-bezos-now-officially-worlds-third-richest-woman/">most expensive divorce</a>&nbsp;settlement in history last year. When he split from ex-wife,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mackenzie-scott/?list=rtb/">MacKenzie Scott</a>, last July, he agreed to give her 25% of his Amazon stake, a chunk of stock now worth $63 billion. Even after giving away $1.7 billion in charitable gifts earlier this year, Scott is currently the world&#8217;s 14th-richest person and second-richest woman, behind L&#8217;Oréal heiress&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/francoise-bettencourt-meyers/">Françoise Bettencourt Meyers</a>.&nbsp;



Bezos isn’t alone among tech titans with fortunes surging to massive new heights. Facebook&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/?list=rtb/">Mark Zuckerberg</a>&nbsp;ended Tuesday as a brand-new centibillionaire, worth $103.1 billion after adding $3.4 billion to his fortune in one day, on Facebook stock gains. That surge continued early Wednesday afternoon, with Zuckerberg up an astonishing $6 billion just on Wednesday as of publication time. He&#8217;s now worth $109.1 billion.



There are now more centibillionaires on the planet than ever. Joining Bezos, Gates and the newly crowned Zuckerberg is LVMH chair&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/?list=rtb/">Bernard Arnault</a>, who first joined the 12-figure ranks last year. Though his net worth slipped to about $80 billion at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in March, Arnault reclaimed the centibillionaire title in May and today is worth about $115 billion. This makes him the third-richest person on earth–$90 billion poorer than Jeff Bezos.



Update 8/26/2020, 6:05 p.m.: A regulatory filing made public late Wednesday revealed that Bezos donated 7,548 Amazon shares–worth about $26 million–to an undisclosed nonprofit organization. At market close on Wednesday, Bezos was worth $205 billion.



-Jonathan Ponciano, Forbes Staff

Amazon CEO And Blue Origin Founder Jeff Bezos  Speaks At Air Force Association Air, Space And Cyber Conference

Jeff Bezos Becomes The First Person Ever Worth $200 Billion

Here are five big numbers that show Amazon <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon" target="_blank">AMZN</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon">-3.7%</a>’s explosive growth during the pandemic which has hurt much of the retail world.



$570 billion



That’s how much Amazon’s market capitalization has gained so far in 2020. At the start of the year, the e-commerce giant sported a valuation of around $920 billion. After the stock bounced back from the coronavirus market sell-off in March and hit new record highs, the company is now worth $1.49 trillion. That makes Amazon one of the largest companies in the world, trailing only Microsoft&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/microsoft" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MSFT</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/microsoft">-4.3%</a>, worth $1.54 trillion, and Apple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/apple" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AAPL</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/apple">-4.6%</a>, worth $1.61 trillion.



63.3%



Amazon’s stock has increased by more than 60% this year and now trading at around $3,000 per share. It bottomed out at around $1,600 in mid-March as the stock market plunged amid widespread business shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. The stock has since roared back from its March low, closing above $3,000 per share for the first time on July 6. There are several reasons to explain the stock’s “meteoric rise,” according to Morningstar&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/morningstar" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MORN</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/morningstar">+0.5%</a>&nbsp;analyst R. J. Hottovy. “Heightened Prime member engagement (especially for online grocery services)” and strong usage rates for its cloud business, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Morningstar assigns the stock a fair value estimate of $2,750 per share.



$178.5 billion



Bezos, who currently owns an 11.1% stake in Amazon, has seen his net worth surge by more than 50% so far in 2020. He is the world’s richest person: Forbes estimates his <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?list=rtb/#384653071b23">net worth</a> at $178.5 billion, up from $114.7 billion at the end of 2019. The second richest person is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, with a net worth of $113 billion.



$75 billion



That’s at least how much revenue analysts are expecting from Amazon when it reports second quarter earnings next week on July 30. But Morningstar says (as is the case with many big tech stocks today), the market has moved back to a “growth-over-profitability” mindset when it comes to Amazon. The company is expected to report at least $4 billion in coronavirus-related expenses, which could pressure the company’s operating profits, according to Hottovy. Since April, Amazon and Bezos have <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/2020/07/08/jeff-bezos-net-worth-hits-all-time-high-of-more-than-180-billion/#2c2a2d3f24ff">faced backlash</a> over inadequate safety and working conditions amid the coronavirus which had led to worker protests. The company has since pledged to spend more money on revamping health and safety protocols in the workplace.



$3,800 per share



Analysts at investment firms Jefferies and Goldman <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/goldman-sachs-group" target="_blank">GS</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/goldman-sachs-group">-1.4%</a> Sachs have both raised their Amazon price targets to $3,800 per share. That’s the highest estimate on the Street. Both firms cited Amazon’s booming e-commerce business—including sustained online sales growth in North America—and large potential upside from its growth in its cloud segment, AWS. According to Goldman analysts, data from Mastercard <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/mastercard" target="_blank">MA</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/mastercard">-1.1%</a> indicates that Amazon’s e-commerce segment <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/amazon-stock-upside-street-high-price-target-goldman-sachs-tie-2020-7-1029410889#" target="_blank">grew by 93%</a> year-over-year in May.



 &#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/">Sergei Klebnikov</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/markets">Markets</a>

gettyimages-450831356-594×594

5 Big Numbers That Show Amazon’s Explosive Growth During The Coronavirus Pandemic

It’s not just Amazon stock that has boosted the fortunes of its billionaire backer. Dramatic changes in the share prices of Tesla, Reliance and Microsoft have reshuffled the ranks of the top ten richest in the world since March.



 Between last Friday afternoon after markets closed and 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jeff Bezos’ net worth fell by $8 billion. That’s a huge sum — the combined value of the NFL’s New England Patriots ($4.1 billion) and the New York Giants ($3.9 billion). But for Bezos, who’s worth about $181 billion, it was just a routine couple of days on the job —and a 4.4% decline in his fortune.



Since March 18, the date that Forbes used to calculate net worths for the 2020 World’s Billionaires list, and days after the President declared a national emergency due to the coronavirus, Amazon’s stock price has soared nearly 69%. As shoppers who sheltered at home during the pandemic turned to Amazon for ordering more purchases, its market cap reached a record $1.5 trillion, and Bezos’ fortune jumped $68 billion. Even with the slight downtick in the last two days, investors aren’t worried – mostly chalking it up to portfolio rebalancing, or momentum stocks retreating a bit after a strong run.



Bezos is not the only billionaire to get much richer during the pandemic. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has gone from No. 31 wealthiest in the world in mid-March to No. 9 as of Tuesday. His net worth has nearly tripled in the last four months, to $69.1 billion from $24.6 billion, largely due to a massive 320% rally in Tesla’s stock. It’s the first time Musk ranks among the world’s top ten richest. “I really couldn’t care less,” Musk told Forbes in early July, commenting on the size of his fortune. “Those numbers rise and fall, but what really matters is making great products that people love.”



Another big gainer of the past several months is Mukesh Ambani, an Indian business magnate and chairman of Reliance Industries, whose telecom firm Reliance Jio has attracted billions of dollars in investments in 2020, including $5.7 billion from Facebook in April and $1.2 billion from U.A.E.’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala in June. On July 15 Google confirmed it would invest $4.5 billion in Jio. That, in turn, has helped lead to a surge in the share price of Reliance. Ambani is now the seventh richest person in the world, worth $71.4 billion, nearly twice his net worth in mid-March. The last time Ambani was in the top 10 was in 2011, with a $27 billion fortune.



Also new to the top ten since March: Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft. Microsoft stock is up a striking 47% since mid March, landing Ballmer at the world’s No. 6 richest, worth $72.1 billion.



Whiplash 2020: Shakeup Among Top 10



Musk and Ballmer join the ​upper echelon, while Buffett falls to his lowest rank in at least 20 years.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/billionaires.png" alt="" class="wp-image-46513" width="686" height="664" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/billionaires.png 592w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/billionaires-300x290.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 686px) 100vw, 686px" /></figure>



Of course, as some climb up the ranks, others must go down – and some go up and down a lot. Bernard Arnault was worth $108 billion in late January. He fell to $76 billion in mid March, as people worried about spending on luxury goods. He is back up to $111.1 billion, and number three in the world.



Despite only a $3.5 billion drop in his net worth since March, Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors of all time, is down four spots and now the eighth richest person in the world. It’s the lowest Buffett has ranked in at least 20 years. The Waltons, the family behind Walmart, had three members – Jim Walton, Alice Walton and Rob Walton – who rounded out the top ten in mid-March. While their net worths on Tuesday were actually up $3 billion, those increases were not enough for them to hold onto their spots as others including Musk, Ambani and Ballmer surged ahead.



The only certainty with markets like this is that billions can be gained – and lost – and regained in a matter of hours.



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/">Angel Au-Yeung</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

gettyimages-1148401100-594×594

Why Jeff Bezos Lost $8 Billion In The Last 2 Days – And Why That’s Not A Big Deal

TOPLINE Jeff Bezos’ wealth suddenly caught Twitter&#8217;s attention on Wednesday amid ‘claims’ that the world’s richest man is set to become a trillionaire, in part thanks to pandemic-driven demand that has sent Amazon stock soaring.



KEY FACTS



<ul><li>Bezos was trending on Twitter on Wednesday after a months-old <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.comparisun.com/resources/the-trillion-dollar-club/" target="_blank">study</a> by small business advice platform, Comparisun, resurfaced, claiming that Bezos net worth could reach $1 trillion by 2026.</li></ul>



<ul><li>The company analyzed the market cap of the highest valued firms on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as Forbes’ 25 richest people. Chinese real estate billionaire Xu Jiayin is second on the study’s list.</li></ul>



<ul><li>But Bezos has a long way to go to become the world’s first trillionaire. At the time of publication, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/#26e34b671b23">Forbes values</a> the 56-year-old’s net worth to be $143 billion. He owns a 11.2% stake in Amazon, and his wealth has surged upwards from around $125 billion in March.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Amazon is predicted to be one of the winners of the pandemic as demand for online shopping, streaming and delivery services flies.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Sales in the first three months of the year topped $75 billion, up from $60 billion in 2019. The potential for a second wave of the virus and further lockdowns could keep that demand high.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Bezos joined Forbes’ <a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/#62bb434c7e2f">list</a> of 400 richest Americans in 1998, four years after he founded Amazon, and had a net worth of $1.6 billion at the time.</li></ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://twitter.com/Thomas_A_Moore/status/1260788716693487616?s=20
</div></figure>



KEY BACKGROUND



Amazon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AMZN</a>&nbsp;shares are up more than&nbsp;<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/amzn-stock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">28%</a>&nbsp;so far this year. But the company is now up against “the hardest time” it has ever faced, Bezos&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/30/amazon-q1-beats-on-net-sales-of-75-5b-but-posts-net-income-of-2-5b-down-1b-on-a-year-ago/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;in April. The company predicted operating profits of $4 billion in the three months to June, but is now committing that entire amount to “COVID-related expenses” such as higher wages for hourly teams, buying up personal protective equipment for staff, and developing coronavirus testing facilities.



The company has been under fire from former employees—both office staff and warehouse workers—for allegedly silencing them after they spoke out about a lack of protection against the virus. Amazon has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/03/31/amazon-fires-worker-who-led-warehouse-walkout-demanding-coronavirus-protections/#2e290bfb4c0c">let go</a>&nbsp;a number of employees, claiming that they&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/04/14/amazon-fires-two-more-employees-after-calling-out-warehouse-working-conditions/#5a28a575199e">breached</a>&nbsp;company policy.&nbsp;



TANGENT



In February, Bezos pocketed $3.1 billion after selling $4 billion worth of Amazon shares since January.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/">Isabel Togoh</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

gettyimages-532206876-594×594

Jeff Bezos ‘Trillionaire’ Is Trending On Twitter. Here’s Why

Zimbabwe-born, Canadian-resident Natasha Heschélle, who was once homeless on the streets of Paris, has now produced a new web series that merges many genres.



From being a migrant worker in Paris to sleeping at a shelter run by a Catholic priest, Natasha Heschélle’s career has taken her through some of life’s most uncertain experiences.



Now a film producer and actress in North America, her inaugural series, Zahara – The Return, premiered in April on Amazon Prime Videos, reaching viewers in the United States far from her country of birth, Zimbabwe.



Heschélle says her life story has been that of determination and sacrifice.



Like most of her countrymen, hers too started with separation from her family. Her mother, Marisa Moyo, left the country at the height of President Robert Mugabe’s misrule in 2004, and found a new home in Canada.



“I was seven when my mother left. Her move helped send me to a good school and take care of the rest of the family. I lived a privileged life compared to my peers. I could afford going shopping in South Africa and Botswana; only the privileged few could do this.”



Most Zimbabweans at this stage were living in penury but the worst was to come in 2008.



Heschélle often skipped school to attend dance classes, leaving her family unimpressed.



“When my grandmother died, I suffered severe depression and this worsened as my dreams of becoming a dancer were not materializing. I decided to move to Canada to live with my mom. During the application period, I temporarily moved to Paris in 2013 with the plan to work and pay for my dancing classes.”



That plan didn’t work.



“I ended up homeless and on the streets as I ran out of money with no job, until a priest took me into a shelter where I lived for three months. For a week, I slept at Gare du Nord street in central Paris and with no basic French language skills, things could not be any better. I had to wait until my Canadian documents came out in 2014 when my mom paid for my air ticket,” she recollects.



Once in the Land of Maple Syrup, her dreams started taking shape.



“I got a job, went to acting school, the Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology, along the way landing my first acting role as a supporting actress in a film produced by a Tanzanian. Unfortunately, that movie was not aired due to the producer refusing to pay casting staff.”



Heschélle drew inspiration from her mother.



“My role model is my mother; she is the strongest person I have ever met. She pushes me not to give up. Through her support, I produced my own television series.”



Her television drama, Zahara – The Return, is a three-part romance web series, which showcases rebellion and racial tensions.



The 23-year-old even has advice for budding filmmakers.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Being a producer takes courage, it takes risks. As an actress in Canada, I am a visible minority and I have an accent which has worked against me.</blockquote>



&#8220;I have lost so many roles due to this reality, so I have learned to speak with the North American accent, it’s not easy. I don’t want to lose my accent because that is my identity, but if I have to work in North America, I have to make that transition.”



Says the University of Free State’s Film Studies Professor and film critic, Nyasha Mboti, about the series: “It is a merging of genres playing on racial politics and the horror genre. For black people, the horror genre is increasingly holding an emerging fascination due to the fact that their lives blur the line between horror and biopic, tragedy and comedy, and highlight that there is a thin line between horror and everyday life.



“Black directors, in order to have cross-over appeal, are starting more and more to fictionalize and stylise the racialised horror of everyday life, turning it into a genre that audiences can enjoy.”



– By Trust Matsilele

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A Story Of Separation And Return

MacKenzie Bezos is an author, an early Amazon employee, a billionaire — and isn’t talking.



MacKenzie Bezos was not fussy, which was helpful, as there
was no time for fussiness at Amazon headquarters in early 1996. She shared her
office with a junior employee in a space that doubled as the company kitchen.
For 12 hours a day, as workers squeezed by to use the microwave, she presided
over the accounting. At night she headed to the warehouse to pack orders. She
“was a huge contributor,” says Mike Hanlon, Amazon’s seventh employee. “She
really is a talented person in a way that I think gets lost when you’re the
billionaire’s wife.”



The mystery around MacKenzie, 49, seems carefully
cultivated. She largely slipped into anonymity after Amazon’s early years and
has granted no interviews since January 2019, when her split from husband Jeff
became public. 



The couple finalized their divorce in July, with MacKenzie getting 25% of his Amazon stock. That stake is currently worth $36.1 billion, enough to put her 15th on 2019’s Forbes 400. “She should have gotten 50% of the company,” says Nick Hanauer, one of Amazon’s first investors. “MacKenzie was an equal partner to Jeff in the early days.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://www.forbeswomanafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/FO103119_067-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-41575"/><figcaption>NEW YORK CITY, NY &#8211; NOVEMBER 5: Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos attend The Aspen Institute 26th Annual Awards Dinner at The Plaza Hotel on November 5, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by MAX RAPP/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



In keeping with character, MacKenzie wouldn’t talk for this
story. To shed some light on her, we spent weeks contacting more than 100
friends and former classmates and coworkers; even that yielded only a hazy
picture, one of an intensely private but talented woman who has, quietly,
excelled at every stage of her life.



MacKenzie grew up in San Francisco, a middle child with two
siblings. At six, she wrote a 142-page book called The Book Worm. Her parents,
a homemaker and a financial planner, sent her to Hotchkiss, the Connecticut
boarding school, where she graduated a year early. She studied at Cambridge,
then Princeton, where she majored in English; Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni
Morrison was her thesis advisor. “She was generally a very poised and a quiet
and brilliant presence,” says Jeff Nunokawa, one of her English professors. 



After graduating, she took a job at the hedge fund D.E. Shaw, where she began dating Jeff Bezos, who left to found Amazon in 1994. From the outset, MacKenzie was heavily involved. “No one really had job titles . . . so she did just about everything,” says Tod Nelson, another early employee.



READ MORE: <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/05/28/mackenzie-bezos-will-donate-half-her-fortune-to-charity/">MacKenzie Bezos Will Donate Half Her Fortune To Charity</a>



MacKenzie pulled back around the time Amazon went public, in
1997, to focus on fiction writing. She kept a low profile until 2005, when
HarperCollins published her first novel, The Testing of Luther Albright.



Morrison deemed it “a rarity.” MacKenzie followed it in 2013 with Traps. The more recent chapters of her life are largely unknown. In 2018 she and Jeff committed $2 billion to fight homelessness and support nonprofit preschools. In May, as their divorce neared completion, she signed the Giving Pledge, promising to donate at least half her wealth. True to form, she hasn’t said a word about where those billions will go.



&#8211;Noah Kirsch, Forbes Staff, Media

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New Billionaire Ghost Writer: The Mystery Around MacKenzie Bezos

Topline:&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.aboutamazon.com/operations/amazon-opening-100000-new-roles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon announced Monday</a>&nbsp;that it would be opening 100,000 new full-time and part-time positions to deal with increased buying demand as people practice social distancing during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.



<ul><li>The company will also increase pay by $2 in the U.S. from its current $15 an hour, £2 in the UK and €2 in Europe for those working in fulfillment centers, transportation services, stores or people making deliveries, amounting to a total of $350 million.</li><li><a href="https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazons-actions-to-help-employees-communities-and-customers-affected-by-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon last Friday shared</a>&nbsp;that the increase in online commerce has unsurprisingly resulted in shortages for household essentials and delays in shipment times.</li><li>Monday&#8217;s statement also noted that &#8220;We continue to consult with medical and health experts, and take all recommended precautions in our buildings and stores to keep people healthy. We’ve taken measures to promote social distancing in the workplace and taken on enhanced and frequent cleaning, to name just a few.&#8221;</li><li>Last week, Amazon told all of its employees to consider working from home if they could,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/12/amazon-tells-all-employees-to-stay-home-amid-coronavirus-fears.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to CNBC</a>; for its fulfillment centers and delivery services, it also launched a&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon/covid-19-update-more-ways-amazon-is-supporting-employees-and-contractors?tag=theverge02-20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$25 million relief fund</a>&nbsp;that lets workers diagnosed with the coronavirus apply for&nbsp; grants equal to two weeks pay, as well as unlimited unpaid time off for all hourly employees until the end of March.</li><li>Amazon currently employs 250,000 people at 110 fulfillment centers.</li></ul>



News Peg: <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">According to Johns Hopkins</a>, 181,200 people have been infected with the coronavirus, with 7,115 deaths reported. School closures, lockdowns and curfews have been put in place to promote social distancing, with the White House today recommending to avoid groups of more than 10 people.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/">Matt Perez, </a>Forbes Staff<a href="https://www.forbes.com/games">, Games</a>

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Amazon Hoping To Hire 100,000 New Employees To Deal With Coronavirus Demand

Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos lost his title as the richest man in the world during after-hours trading on Thursday, after his ecommerce behemoth reported lackluster third-quarter earnings.&nbsp;



Amazon shares fell 7% in after-hours trading, knocking Bezos’ fortune down to $103.9 billion. That puts him at number two among the world’s richest. The new number one: Microsoft cofounder and fellow Washington state resident Bill Gates, who is worth $105.7 billion.&nbsp;



Bezos became the richest man in the world in 2018 and the first centibillionaire to ever appear on the The Forbes 400 that year with a net worth of $160 billion, ending Gates’ 24-year run as number one. 



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But the Amazon chief executive&#8217;s net worth drop isn’t entirely due to the decline in Amazon shares. Bezos transferred a quarter of his Amazon stake to his ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos as part of their divorce settlement, which was finalized earlier this year. MacKenzie Bezos is worth $32.7 billion, and among the top twenty wealthiest people in the world.&nbsp;



On Thursday afternoon, Amazon reported a 26% drop in net income in its third quarter, its first profit decline since 2017.&nbsp; In after-hours trading, Amazon dropped nearly 9% to $1,624 per share in the 20 minutes after the market closed. It has since rebounded slightly, hovering at $1,657 per share at 7:30 p.m. ET



The company said it is investing heavily in logistics and delivery infrastructure, with the goal of making one-day shipping the norm for Amazon Prime members. 



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The company disclosed during its second quarter earnings call in July that it had spent “a little bit” more than the estimated $800 million that it has previously said it would invest in one-day shipping infrastructure. 



The company declined to disclose how much it had spent on one-day shipping in the third quarter. But chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky did disclose Thursday that the company plans to spend $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, presumably to finance the one-day shipping initiative. 



Gates, meanwhile, has been out of Microsoft since 2014 when he stepped down as chairman of the storied company, though he remains a board member. He has sold or given away the majority of his Microsoft stake and diversified his wealth over time. He is now the co-chairman of the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest private charitable foundation in the world.&nbsp;



Bill Gates debuted on Forbes’ first ever billionaire list in 1987 with a net worth of $1.25 billion. Bezos first joined The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 1998, one year after Amazon went public, with a net worth of $1.6 billion. 



-Angel Au-Yeung; Forbes

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Jeff Bezos Is No Longer The Richest Person In The World After Amazon Stock Plunges

&nbsp;Amazon is joining Walmart in pointing the finger at Tesla solar panels for fires on the roofs of their facilities in what is yet another hiccup for Tesla’s embattled solar business.



<ul><li>Amazon said Tesla solar panels caught fire in June 2018 at one of its warehouses in Redlands, California.</li><li>Amazon’s disclosure comes days after Walmart sued Tesla for breach of contract and gross negligence after seven stores experienced roof fires allegedly caused by faulty Tesla solar panels. Both companies later said they are working together to “addressing all issues.”</li><li>Amazon said it would not install any more Tesla panels.</li></ul>



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In a statement to&nbsp;Forbes,&nbsp;a Tesla spokesperson said in an email that the Amazon fire was an “isolated event” at one of 11 Amazon sites with solar panels.



“Tesla worked collaboratively with Amazon to root cause the event and remediate. We also performed inspections at the other sites, which confirmed the integrity of the systems. As with all of our commercial solar installations, we continue to proactively monitor the systems to ensure they operate safely and reliably,” the statement continues.



Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla did not respond when Forbes asked whether the company has plans for broader inspections of both commercial and residential solar power installations.



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According to a Business Insider report, Tesla was aware of problems related to its solar panels. In the summer of 2018, around the same time as the Amazon fire, Tesla launched a secret internal project called Project Titan to replace what the company said were faulty “connectors” manufactured by Connecticut-based Amphenol, according to the report.



Key Background: Tesla’s embattled solar business has been plagued by plunging sales, production delays and layoffs since CEO Elon Musk acquired solar company SolarCity for $2.6 billion in 2016.



Musk hasn’t tweeted about the Walmart or Amazon complaints, but instead announced a revamped pricing plan in an effort to boost the slowing solar panel business. The new pricing model allows residents in six states to rent solar power systems starting at $50 a month ($65 a month in California) instead of buying them up front.



-Rachel Sandler; Forbes

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Amazon Is The Second Company To Report Tesla Solar Panel Fire

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos sold over 530,000 Amazon shares in the first two days of August for $990 million. After taxes, he will net an estimated $750 million in cash from the sales.&nbsp;



The sales on August 1 and 2 followed $1.4 billion (after-tax) worth of Amazon stock he sold&nbsp;in the final three days of July.&nbsp;



As the richest man on earth, Bezos is now worth an estimated $110.1 billion, using Monday’s closing share price for Amazon.



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A spokesman for Amazon has not commented on the purpose for Bezos’ last stock sales. The leading theory is that it is to fund Blue Origin, a space exploration company that Bezos founded in September 2000. Bezos told journalists at a space exploration conference in 2017 that he was funding Blue Origin by selling some of his Amazon shares.



According to documents filed on Monday afternoon with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the world’s richest man sold over 530,000 shares of Amazon when the stock price was around $1,900 a share. On Monday, the stock closed at $1,765 a share.



-Angel Au-Yeung; Forbes Africa



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Jeff Bezos Unloads Another $990 Million Worth Of Amazon Shares In Early August

On Wednesday evening, hours after the stock markets had closed, Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos filed paperwork with the Securities Exchange Commission which showed he had sold $1.8 billion worth of Amazon shares over the final three days of July. After taxes, he will net about $1.4 billion.



Bezos sold slightly more than 900,000 shares of Amazon between July 29 and July 31, when the e-commerce behometh’s stock price was around $1,900 a share. His net worth is now $115 billion, using Wednesday&#8217;s closing share price.



The last time that Bezos sold Amazon shares was in October 2018. 



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The new filings also show that Bezos has given his ex-wife MacKenzie 25% of his Amazon stake, or 19.7 million shares. In April, as the couple announced they were getting divorced, Mackenzie tweeted that Jeff would keep 75% of his Amazon stake. 



Jeff Bezos will continue to exercise voting control over the 19.7 million shares of Amazon he transferred to his wife, according to an SEC filing in April. Her Amazon shares are worth nearly $36.8 billion, making her the third richest woman in the world.  



Jeff Bezos has sold large chunks of Amazon stock before, but this appears to be the largest sale, measured in dollars. Bezos sold Amazon stock worth $1.7 billion in 2017 in two separate transactions in May and November of that year. It was reported that Bezos planned to sell $1 billion worth of stock every year to fund Blue Origin, his space exploration company. 



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A spokesman for Amazon has not responded to requests for comment regarding the purpose of Bezos’ latest stock sale.



Bezos has done little in terms of philanthropy so far. In September 2018, he announced the Bezos Day One Fund, a $2 billion pledge for two causes: helping homeless families find shelter and creating Montessori-inspired preschools in the U.S. 



-Angel Au-Yeung; Forbes



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Jeff Bezos Sells About $1.8 Billion Worth Of Amazon Shares In Three Days

Apple’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48110709" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iPhone sales have dropped</a>&nbsp;in recent quarters, particularly in China, where cheaper rivals Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi have gained traction. Smartphone revenue fell 17% for the latest three months to $31 billion, but the stock jumped 5% on the results. One big reason: record-high services revenue.



The company’s services division includes its App Store, Apple Pay, iTunes, cloud services and more. It is now the second biggest segment for Apple after the iPhone, with revenue of $37 billion in 2018, and Morgan Stanley expects it to&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/11/08/apples-services-will-grow-to-over-100-billion-per-year-in-2023-says-analyst" target="_blank">top $100 billion in 2023</a>. The projected growth speaks to the power of the Apple brand.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here for the full list of The World&#8217;s Most Valuable Brands</a>



Apple tops&nbsp;Forbes’ annual look at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world’s most valuable brands</a>&nbsp;for the ninth straight time.&nbsp;The brand of the tech giant is worth $205.5 billion, up 12% over last year. It is the first time a brand crossed the $200 billion threshold.



Apple has made an art form of moving its customer base from one product category to another. Mac users adopted the iPod, followed by the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Customers trust the brand will work seamlessly across all categories in the Apple ecosystem, which has helped make the Cupertino, California-based company the most valuable in the world. Services is the next frontier for the company and brand.



While Apple maintains its spot at the top, Google is closing fast with a value of $167.7 billion, up 23%. The Apple brand was worth more than twice as much as the ubiquitous search brand just four years ago.



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Google has cornered the global search engine market with a 92% share over the past 12 months,&nbsp;<a href="http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to StatCounter</a>&nbsp;(Bing, 2.6%, and Yahoo, 1.9%, are miles behind). Like Apple, Google has used its brand to move into other categories of consumers’ everyday life from email to Web browsing to maps to cloud storage.



While many global consumer brands struggle with the changing habits of their customers, the biggest tech brands continue to be juggernauts. Microsoft ($123.5 billion) and Amazon ($97 billion) round out the top four and both jumped more than 20% in value.



One tech brand that was dinged over the past 12 months is Facebook, which ranks fifth overall. It was the only brand in the top ten to fall in value, to an estimated $88.9 billion, down 6% from last year. The number of active Facebook users reached 2.4 billion this year, but the social media brand has been hampered by concerns around data protection, privacy policies and fake news.



Coca-Cola is the top brand outside of tech, with a value of $59.2 billion, up 3%, and ranked sixth overall.



Brands: By The Numbers



The 100 most valuable brands are worth a cumulative $2.33 trillion, up 8% over last year. Tech brands were the top gainers, led by e-commerce giant Amazon, up 37% to $97 billion. Other big winners: Netflix (+34%), Google (+27%) and Adobe (+27%). H&amp;M had the biggest fall, down 12% to $11.5 billion. The Swedish retailer has struggled and cut prices last year on clothing to clear excess inventory. More than 20 brands declined in value, including ESPN (-10%), GE (-8%) and Hyundai (-8%).



U.S. companies landed 56 brands among the top 100, as well as 80% of the top 10. Germany (11 brands), France (7) and Japan (6) were the next most prolific countries of origin. Brands from 16 countries made the final cut.



In addition to the proliferation of tech brands (20 of the top 100), financial services (13), automotive (11), consumer packaged goods (10) and retail (8) were the most common industries.



Methodology



We began with a universe of more than 200 global brands, which include both corporate and product brands. We required brands to have more than a token presence in the U.S., which eliminated some large brands like multinational telecom firm&nbsp;Vodafone&nbsp;and Chinese e-commerce behemoth&nbsp;Alibaba.



Our first step in valuing the brands was to determine revenue and earnings before interest and taxes for each one. We gathered these from company reports, Wall Street research and industry experts.&nbsp;Forbes averaged earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) over the past three years and subtracted from earnings a charge of 8% of the brand’s capital employed, figuring a generic brand should be able to earn at least 8% on this capital.



Forbes&nbsp;applied the corporate tax rate in the parent company’s home country to that net earnings figure. Next, we allocated a percentage of those earnings to the brand based on the role brands play in each industry. Brands are crucial when it comes to beverages and luxury goods, but less so with airlines and fuel, when price and convenience are more important.



To this net brand earnings number, we applied the average price-to-earnings multiple over the past three years to arrive at the final brand value. For privately held outfits we applied earnings multiples for comparable public companies.



-Kurt Badenhausen; Forbes Staff

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The World’s Most Valuable Brands 2019: Apple On Top At $206 Billion

It was bound to happen sooner than later: Amazon has surpassed Walmart as the biggest retailer on the planet.



The e-commerce juggernaut&nbsp;jumped&nbsp;25 spots to #28 on&nbsp;Forbes&#8216; Global 2000 list&nbsp;of the world’s biggest public companies, as measured by a composite score of revenues, profits, assets and market value. That was sufficient enough for it to steal the&nbsp;title of the world&#8217;s largest retailer away from Walmart, which slipped five spots to #29 on this year&#8217;s overall list.



Amazon has continued to chart a path to retail domination, with the number of Americans who subscribe to&nbsp;Amazon Prime topping 100 million in 2019. The company has beefed up the benefits attached to its annual membership in an effort to make it a must-have in every household, such as offering special discounts at Whole Foods, investing heavily in&nbsp;television and movies and expanding free shipping. In April, Amazon said it would invest $800 million to&nbsp;make&nbsp;free one-day shipping the new normal,&nbsp;up from&nbsp;the&nbsp;standard two-day shipping the company offers now.



Thanks to investor enthusiasm in its breakneck growth, Amazon has a high-flying stock that has made its founder Jeff Bezos the world&#8217;s richest man and given it a market capitalization of over $900 billion, which is rivaled only by Apple. On this yardstick, it has long trounced Walmart, which lags behind with a market cap of less than $300 billion.



Amazon has been catching up on other measures, too. Its cloud computing business has practically been printing money and last year&nbsp;the company&nbsp;made a record-breaking $10 billion in profits. That is up sharply from $3 billion the year before and easily tops the $6.7 billion that fell to Walmart&#8217;s bottom line.



Nevertheless, Walmart remains larger on&nbsp;some counts: It still&nbsp;pulls in more than double the revenue and has more assets on its balance sheet due to the&nbsp;significant real estate that&nbsp;it owns. It also has 2.2 million workers, which is nearly four times the number of employees that Amazon has on payroll.



Behind Amazon and Walmart, the third-largest retailer on the planet is Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Its core business is selling goods via the internet, but it has also invested heavily in areas like entertainment, logistics and payments. Sales grew 51% to $56 billion in fiscal 2019, driven by the spending of its 654&nbsp;million active retail customers. While Alibaba is still seeing immense growth, its growth rate has ticked down amid&nbsp;an economic slowdown in China and an escalating trade war with the United States.



Home improvement stores like Home Depot (#126) and Lowe&#8217;s (#234) continue to do well, as do discount stores like TJ Maxx (#394) and Ross (#671).



Meanwhile, CVS fell out of the top three largest retailers. The drugstore chain lost $600 million in 2018, as its $69 billion takeover of Aetna and goodwill impairment charges in its long-term care business, Omnicare, ate into its bottom line.&nbsp;The company is now ranked #410 on the overall list, down sharply from #69 in 2017.



Other retailers are facing more existential problems. Victoria&#8217;s Secret parent company L Brands fell 230 spots to #1311 on the overall list as it faces mounting competition from upstarts like ThirdLove and&nbsp;True&amp;Co&nbsp;and traditional players like Target and Chico&#8217;s.&nbsp;Bed Bath &amp; Beyond, which is trying to ward off a group of activist investors intent on shaking up management, slipped 348 spots to #1997. The embattled Sears, recently out of bankruptcy, fell 166 spots to #1913.



-Lauren Debter;Forbes Staff

Tag: Amazon

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