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How a Pune man 'robbed' Jeff Bezos the chance of being the world's richest man

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DailyTrip
DailyTripJul 28, 2017 | 22:03

How a Pune man 'robbed' Jeff Bezos the chance of  being the world's richest man

So close, yet so far. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon for a brief, glorious, sun-kissed moment was the world’s richest man.

On July 27, Bezos was the world’s richest man – surpassing Bill Gates – after Amazon's stock soared on earnings expectations. In fact, by noon, when Amazon stock was at $1,082 (Rs 69,373) per share, and Bezos' wealth soared past $92 billion.

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Sadly, however, the Amazon stocks plunged and subsequently Bezos' net worth. Bezos’ fortune fell by more than $6 billion. The dip in profit, a drop of 77 per cent from $857 million this time a year ago, is mainly due to Amazon’s aggressive investments in its own business. 

Bezos may be sad (though there is hardly any reason for him to be sad, after all, despite the dip, his wealth has increased by more than $25 billion over the past year. And he is still the second richest man), but a man from Pune sure managed to get a laugh out of it. 

Febin Benjamin, a 25-year-old software engineer from Pune wrote to Amazon on Facebook with a simple query.

Hi Amazon, I ordered a product and immediately I got news that Jeff Bezos became world's richest person. And some time later I changed my mind so I cancelled my order and then again I got news that Jeff Bezos slipped to #2. Can you please check and let me know if it was my order cancellation that caused this entire sequence of events? Thanks in advance.

Benjamin’s hilarious question has gone viral with over 3,852 shares and nearly five thousand comments on Facebook.

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All humours aside, was Bezos ever likely to hold his keep as the wealthiest man in the world? Probably not, According to a Forbes editorial, “Bezos would be nowhere close to being the world's wealthiest person had Gates not given so much of his fortune to philanthropy."

"Gates, who created the Giving Pledge with Buffett to encourage billionaires to give at least half of their wealth to charitable causes, had given away $31.1 billion over the course of his lifetime through end of 2016. Forbes estimates that Bezos, who has not signed the pledge, had given approximately $100 million to charity through the end of 2015."

Add to that, it really doesn’t mean much what your rank is if you are anywhere among the top 100 wealthiest people on this planet.

Last updated: July 28, 2017 | 22:03
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