Jeff Bezos, the world's third-richest person, did something strange two weeks ago: He bought a single share of Amazon.com Inc. for $114.77.
The share purchase, disclosed in a filing, is his first in records going back to 2002. The Amazon founder is better known for selling - he's unloaded roughly $30 billion worth of stock since 2002 to fund his various pursuits, from rocket company Blue Origin to personal pleasures like his new $500 million superyacht Koru.
Following Amazon's 1997 initial public offering, Bezos received no further stock in compensation and took only a small salary. He still owns about 10% of the company, which accounts for the bulk of his $148 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The May 25 stock purchase has made him about $10 richer, as Amazon shares traded around $124 on Friday, boosted by a broader tech rally that pushed the S&P 500 Index into a bull market this week.
Bezos' move has confounded Amazon analysts and stock watchers who don't know what to make of the singular purchase. Social media was abuzz with theories, with one person speculating that Bezos planned to give the physical certificate as a gift and others quipping that he must have accidentally clicked the buy button on his brokerage account. Amazon and a representative for Bezos declined to comment on the purchase.
"He needed one more share to take back control," joked Mark Shmulik, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein. (Bezos owns 9.7% of Amazon's stock and retains voting control over the 2.9% stake owned by MacKenzie Scott, his ex-wife, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.)
Shmulik's serious answer, like everyone else: "I'm trying to figure out what that was about."
Then there's the theory that Bezos is taking a page from memelord Elon Musk.
Bezos' purchase was reported the following day at 4:20 p.m. New York time, according to the filing. He also gifted 69,290 shares worth almost $8 million to a nonprofit organization, the filing shows. The juvenile humor implied in the numbers led several people to speculate that, perhaps, we're being trolled.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
