Amazon
[edit] Amazon.com Inc. is a global leader in e-Commerce and the largest online retail store in the United States and in 45 other countries worldwide offering a wide range of products from books, electronics, games, home and garden, movies, music, toys and many other products.
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| Type: | Public |
| Industry: | e-Commerce |
| Founded: | 1994 |
| Headquarters: | Washington |
| Country: | United States |
| Products: | unlimited |
| Employees: | 33,700 (full-time and part-time) |
| Revenue: | 34.20B |
| Website: | http://www.amazon.com |
| Key People | |
Jeff Bezoz, Prsident, CEO, Chairman of the Board
Werner Vogels, VP & CTO
Mathew Work, VP, Alexa Research
Shelley Reynolds, VP Worldwide Controller & Principal Accounting Officer
Bill Carr, VP Digital Media
Colin Bodell, VP Website Application Platform
Jeffrey Wilke, SVP, North American Retail
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History
Mr. Jeff Bezoz, a young hedge fund analyst founded Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore. At first, he planned to call his company Cadabra but he changed his mind because it sounds like “cadaver.” He finally decided to call the company Amazon.com after one of the world’s largest river Amazon, which represents the gigantic number of books he plans to sell online. Jeff’s parents were the first investors in the company and entrusted him $300,000 from their retirement savings. [1]
Bezoz officially launched the Amazon online bookstore on July 6, 1995 offering one million titles. The first book that was purchased was the "Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought." He used his garage as his working area and warehouse. In 1996, Bezoz move to a new headquarter, a small warehouse and hired 11 people to help him with his operations. He kept a small inventory of books available on hand and depended on his supplier’s prompt shipment. The company grew rapidly and at the end of 1996, Bezoz decided to transfer to a bigger warehouse in downtown Seattle. During that time, his number of employees increased from 11 to 151. [2]
In 1997, the company announced the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of stocks and started trading on NASDAQ under “AMZN.” [3] The company initially offered 3 million shares at $18 per share and at the end of the trading it closed at $23.25 per share. Amazon sold $54 million worth of stocks in one day. [4]
In 2000, Amazon has approximately 16 million customers and it became the most popular e-Commerce company in the United States. The increasing number of customers inspired the management to create a new logo to represent the company’s message; it is selling practically everything from A-Z represented by the arrow under the name Amazon. The arrow is also an illustration of a smile from a customer who is happy and satisfied purchasing a product from the company. [5]