Read this article for free.

Already a subscriber? Log in here

True Value

Enterprise Amazon Google Facebook Apple

Bezos’ Steady Selling Leaves Amazon Vulnerable

Martin Peers

Jan 29, 2015 7:00 AM PST

In popular imagination, Amazon.com ranks alongside Google and Facebook as a tech giant able to make long-term bets by virtue of a founder who controls the company and a cash-spewing core business. In reality, however, Amazon has never spewed that much cash, and its founder has been slowly liquidating his stake.

Since taking the company public in 1997, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos’s shareholdings have dropped to 18.1 percent from 41 percent, largely because he’s been selling shares steadily. If he keeps up the current pace of selling, Amazon will become vulnerable to an activist investor unhappy with the blizzard of costly initiatives Mr. Bezos has undertaken.

Read this article for free

This article is part of our archive of over 3,100 stories and is only available to subscribers. To get a preview of the work we do, you can enter your email to access the full article.

Already a subscriber? Log in here

What Is The Information?

Notes bb3aa5069205d702dda37fc71dc6f1c59df2310c4379304e9f1199f052af4884

Exclusive Articles

We broke it first. Receive original reporting you won't read anywhere else from the largest newsroom in tech.

Notebook b5103017ee163370a1667c9ce59ab0ef023875a17888105d26c185cadf31bb69

Daily news analysis

Every weeknight, we'll send you our reporters’ views on the day’s top tech news—distilled into one email.

Conference calls

Get access to our reporters and other top executives with monthly deep-dive calls into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles.

Events 499acedd16cffc41445edd76bfd302b2836c2a27419890f17130a6b10e2aa3df

Special Events

For no extra fee, get access to more than a dozen events yearly, from intimate dinners to larger gatherings with marquee speakers.

What else is included in my subscription?

Become a contributor

Share your views and find other subscribers by completing your profile. You’ll be listed in our contributor directory.

Slack community

Discuss topics and current events with our subscriber-only Slack group and share news about your company with other subscribers.

Annual Subscriber only benefits:

Org Charts

Access the only collection of tech company org charts. Our expanding database includes companies like Amazon, Snap, and Uber.

Crypto Newsletter

Our experts investigate the latest in the crypto world to keep you in-the-know about the movements of digital currencies.

Stay up to date on Silicon Valley

Sign up for Jessica Lessin’s (The Information’s CEO & Founder) free Saturday newsletter and also receive a complimentary week of our daily afternoon tech commentary email.