Jeff Bezos as Time’s Man of the Year in 1999. Cover by Gregory Heisler
The news started breaking on Twitter this afternoon that there was a big meeting coming up at at the Washington Post today. Not long after word came that Amazon founder and space memorabilia collector Jeff Bezos had purchased the paper for $250 million. Although Bezos founded and is the largest stockholder in book sales and media giant Amazon, he bought the paper out of his own personal fortune (and with an estimated value of $26 Billion, the Post cost less than 1 percent of his net worth).
I’m not going to try to analyze what this all means tonight, but here are links to a host of stories on the sale:
- Ezra Klien – Some thoughts on The Post being sold to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos
Analysis from the Washington Post’s Wonkblog. - Lydia DePillis – Why The Washington Post isn’t a charity case for Jeff Bezos
More from Wonkblog on why Jeff Bezos may have bought the Post. Basic takeaway – the Post could bring a lot of added value to Amazon even if it doesn’t turn a profit on its own. - Sarah Kliff – Read this now: Five great articles on Jeff Bezos
Yet more coverage from Wonkblog . - Letter from Washington Post Co.’s CEO Don Graham to the company’s staff
- Letter from Jeff Bezos on purchase of the WP
- Letter from publisher Katharine Weymouth to Post readers
- Erik Wemple – Amazon story lands bit for small paper
Incredibly timed post from the Post’s news media blogger about an expose on Amazon’s warehouse workers published about 2 hours before the sale news broke. - Jeff Bezos: Biography of Blue Origin, Amazon Founder
Bezos bio from Space.com. You do know that he also owns a company working on building space capsules.