Here Are the Amazon Rivals Jeff Bezos Could Buy With His Billions
What can Jeff Bezos do with all his billions? Destroy his competition. | Image: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
- Jeff Bezos’ fortune has grown by over $60 billion this year.
- The Amazon CEO’s net worth is currently higher than the GDP of more than 70% of the world’s countries.
- His wealth is more than double that of Warren Buffett.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is now worth $179 billion . This year, amid the worst economic crisis in decades, he has added $64 billion to his wealth.
Bezos’ fiercely competitive personality is what has turned Amazon into the e-commerce behemoth it is today.
Whether it is shipping, entertainment or defense contracting, the world’s fourth-largest public company by market cap keeps venturing into new fields. Now Bezos’ net worth vastly exceeds most of Amazon’s biggest competitors in each of these industries.
Jeff Bezos could buy U.S. shipping giants and remain a billionaire
Before the pandemic, Amazon ran a shipping service that utilized its excess capacity. Now Amazon’s shipping service is currently only being used for its own needs .
If he wanted, Bezos could acquire the major competitors of Amazon’s shipping service without flinching. This includes FedEx (NYSE:FDX) and United Parcel Services (NYSE:UPS). FedEx’s market cap is approximately $44 billion, while United Parcel Services’ is about $84 billion.
Even after acquiring them, he would still retain a balance of over $50 billion.
Uncle Sam and the giant retailer
Amazon Web Services offers cloud services to the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Special Operations Command.
If Bezos decides he wants Amazon to start building military hardware, he could easily buy any of the major U.S. defense contractors out of his pocket.
Bezos’ wealth currently exceeds the market cap of the top five U.S. defense contractors. This includes Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), which is valued at $108 billion , Boeing (NYSE:BA) at $98 billion, and Raytheon Technologies (NYSE:RTX) at $94 billion.
Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) is valued at $52 billion, and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) at $43 billion.
eBay’s fall, Amazon’s rise
Amazon was founded more than a year before eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY). In the first decade of their existence, eBay put in a better performance than Amazon in terms of revenues and shareholder value.
Fifteen years ago, eBay had 30% more traffic than Amazon . In December 2005, Amazon’s market cap was under $30 billion , while eBay’s was over $60 billion .
Twelve years ago, eBay had 84.5 million active users against Amazon’s 81 million. Currently, Amazon holds 38% of the U.S. e-commerce market share , while eBay’s is just 4.5%.
At the moment, Bezos is worth more than four times eBay’s market cap. If he decided to acquire eBay, it would leave him with more than enough to purchase an emerging threat, Shopify (NYSE:SHOP). The latter’s market cap stands at $109 billion.
With a couple more billions, streaming would be his to lose
Within the video streaming business, Bezos’ net worth is about 85% of the market cap of Amazon Prime Video’s biggest rivals.
That includes Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), which owns Disney+ among other streaming services, and AT&T (NYSE:T), which owns HBO Max. The market caps of each of the three firms range between $210 billion and $213 billion.
Regarding music streaming, he is worth far more than Spotify (NYSE:SPOT), an industry leader whose market cap stands at nearly $50 billion.
If Jeff Bezos were a country…
Jeff Bezos’ net worth relative to the GDP around the world is intimidating, too. If he were a country, Bezos would be the 53rd richest by GDP.
Only 52 countries currently have a GDP higher than Jeff Bezos’ net worth.
When Bezos finally becomes the world’s first trillionaire, his net worth will be higher than the GDP of nearly 92% of the world’s countries. That includes many OECD countries based on the current GDP figures.
Disclaimer: This article represents the author’s opinion and should not be considered investment or trading advice from CCN.com. The author holds no investment position in the above-mentioned securities.
