In Focus

Amazon's Jeff Bezos and His Billions

NOTE: All this month in the Chicks' Eye View we will be featuring the richest of the rich from the Forbes List of the World's Richest People. Just who are they and how'd they get to be so filthy rich?

Two billion dollars. I'm trying to fathom it. How cool would it be to be worth two billion dollars? That's what today's subject of our Chicks' Eye View is worth. The kicker is, that only puts him at number 234 on the Forbes Richest List! I can't possibly fathom (word of the day) beyond two billion. Questions are: Just who is this dude? What has he done? And is his company worthy of our investment?

Jeff Bezos... Founder of Amazon.com... and I don't know.

Back in 1993, Bezos was a working as a hedge fund manager for D.E. Shaw & Company when he decided to head west and start the world's largest online bookstore. Jeff has always been interested in anything that can be revolutionized by the computer, especially using the Internet, so bookselling was his first venture. He has since built Amazon into the world's largest online retailer, selling everything from books to toys, or consumer electronics to kitchen products. If you've never been to Amazon, get your head out of your Danielle Steele summer reading and check it out. I could spend hours at Amazon.com, and usually do, so I try not to go there more than twice a month. I love to check out the latest DVD movies and read the reviews of our book, Chicks Laying Nest Eggs. (Feel free to write one, we could really use a boost from some of the nasty ones.) I just noticed they paired our book with Suze Orman's. Woo Hoo. We're riding Suze's coattails, or is she riding high on our feathers? You write the review.

Amazon opened its virtual doors back in July 1995 with a mission to be fastest, easiest and most enjoyable shopping experience when buying books. Even though their product base has grown a gazillion times over, they still haven't lost their focus on customer service and satisfaction. At the site, you are able to type in a word related to the product you are looking for, and whammo, up it comes. (Just like the "search" computers at Barnes and Noble's that are always being used by someone else.) Amazon also has a personal "Likes and Dislikes" log on you. Scary huh? But great idea. Remember that librarian that would see your face and say, "Hello Mrs. Smith, we got a real interesting book in on Botany that I set aside for you. I thought you might enjoy it since you checked out Better Botany Than Your Neighbor last week." Amazon's system can do this for you, without the librarian knowing your competitive nature.

They also let you shop via One-Click. I've never done anything simpler. All you have to do is click, "Buy It." and two days later, the book is at your door. No typing in your credit cards a hundred times, no typing in the delivery address, and no wasted time. So next time you see Oprah's book selection (shameless promotion interjection #2: Please write letter to Oprah and tell her to put the Chicks book on her show as her next selection), you can hop online, One-Click the title, and you'll have it faster than you can hop in the car and fill it with gas. Well, almost.

Whether or not you'll want to invest in Amazon is another story. It's risky. It's volatile. It could go under at any minute, or it could be the most successful e-business on the Web. I bought into Amazon when the prices were at an all-time high. (I was One-Clicking my phalanges out and thought this new model was brilliant.) I should have looked at the financials before jumping in with the checkbook. It tells a different story.

Amazon has yet to make a profit. They have had a net loss every quarter for the last six years. A few months ago, Mr. Bezos promised us that they would be profitable by this year's end. But, in this Internet age, companies are reporting their numbers any which way they want. There is no standard enforced. The old standard, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), has been thrown out the door for a new model, called "pro forma." No holds barred. Take one-time charges, big charges, shock your investors, hide losses, rearrange debt and state your earnings as creatively as you can. They have to look good for investors, even if you stretch the truth. (Everyone's doing it, remember our Cisco article?) There is more creativity in the technology industry than you'd think and Amazon is a leader of the pack. You really have to be an expert accountant to try and see the real numbers through the reported numbers, and then again, it still isn't easy.

Most recently Amazon decided to get into PC Sales. Yes, you heard me correctly. After all the PC companies have been scrambling to try and make a buck selling their own computers (Dell, Compaq, IBM, and Gateway), Amazon thinks that they can do it. I'm still waiting to see how our Mr. Bezos plans on pulling this off, and how the heck they think this will be the answer in getting their revenues to outweigh their expenses. Then again, there's pro forma.