Amazon opened for business 25 years ago ----------------------------------------------- In 1995, after starting life in a garage in Washington state, Amazon began selling books online. Today, its founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of almost $117 billion ----------------------------------------------- TIMELINE (events aligned to share price) ----------------------------------------------- $3,500 $3,000 $2,500 $2,000 $1,500 $1,000 $500 $0 Jul 16, 1995: Amazon begins selling books online. Within one month it’s shipping to all 50 U.S. states and 45 countries May 15, 1997: Amazon floats on NASDAQ, priced at $18 per share Jun 1998: Begins selling CDs and DVDs Nov 2002: Starts selling clothes 2003: Generates first annual profit – $35m (on revenues of $5.3bn) Feb 2005: Launches Amazon Prime Nov 2007: Kindle e-reader, created by research and development arm, Lab126 goes on sale for $399 First book sold: Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies by Douglas Hofstadter Dec 2007: Work begins on 740,000 square metre office in Seattle, transforming city’s real estate market, now home to 40,000 Amazon staff Nov 2015: Brings Echo smart speaker, featuring Alexa AI, to mass market ----------------------------------------------- Smiling A to Z logo: Bezos originally called company Cadabra, but changed it after it was mistaked for Cadaver ----------------------------------------------- July 9, 2020 closing price: $3,182.63 Equates to one $18 share from 1995 being worth $38,191.56 in 2020 (12 shares*) ----------------------------------------------- Three large conservatories form part of new HQ ----------------------------------------------- S S S Stock splits* 95 96 97 98 99 2000 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ----------------------------------------------- Founder Jeff Bezos, shares his business mantra Get big fast ----------------------------------------------- Sep 2000: Founds Blue Origin space rocket company Aug 2013: Buys ailing Washington Post for $250m, turning it profitable in 2016 Jan 2008: Acquires audiobooks company Audible for $300m, giving Amazon 41% of audiobook market Nov 2011: Launches Fire tablet Mar 2012: Buys Kiva Systems for $775m to automate fulfilment centres Jun 2014: Unveils Fire phone, but it fails to catch on. Amazon ceases production following year, losing $170m Jul 2019: U.S. and EU open antitrust investigations to assess whether Amazon is in breach of competition rules ----------------------------------------------- *Existing shares divided into multiple shares, reducing stock price as number of shares increases. Amazon shares have split three times: 2-for-1 (Jun 1998, Sep 1999) and 3-for-1 (Jan 1999). Sources: History, CNN, NASDAQ, Yahoo! Finance, Investopedia Pictures: AP, Creative Commons © GRAPHIC NEWS