Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)
Amazon.com Inc. became the second publicly traded U.S. company after Apple Inc. to ascent to $1 trillion in market value on Tuesday.
Shares of the e-commerce giant briefly reached $2,050.27 in midday trading, pushing its value above $1 trillion for the first time. The shares later subsided slightly to close the day at $2039.51, translating to a market cap of $995 billion.
Amazon has added roughly $430 billion to its market value since the beginning of the year after a stock surge of nearly 75%. That is about the combined size of Target Corp., Costco Wholesale Corp., and Walmart Inc. The company’s growth has also made its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world with a net worth of over $166 billion as of Tuesday.
Apple was the first company to eclipse the $1 trillion milestone last month and has inched further since. The iPhone-maker is currently worth roughly $100 billion more than the online superstore. Two other tech giants, Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are within $170 billion of the 13-digit territory.
Amazon has grown quickly into one of the biggest and most influential companies in the world, an achievement that has even silenced former critics who previously believed it was over-hyped.
In the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, the company swung to its biggest quarterly profit of $2.5 billion, or $5.07 per share on sales of $52.9 billion. The record performance was aided by its core retail business that often generates losses or small profit margins.
Founded 24 years ago as a small bookseller, Amazon is now the leading online retailer and one of the largest providers of cloud services. Investors have also continued to support the ecommerce retailer in its entry into new markets such as groceries, healthcare, and advertising.
But its success has also attracted opposition from individuals who view it as a corporate monster, which often sends some companies to their knees if it hints at venturing into their industries. President Trump is not a fan of the company and has accused it for using the United States Postal Service as its “delivery boy.”
In January, the President said its dominance was putting brick-and-mortar retailers out of business and called for high taxes on the company. Amazon is also likely to control entire economies, especially emerging markets, as it looks to extend its global reach.
Amazon.com Inc Company Profile
Amazon.com, Inc. engages in the provision of online retail shopping services. It operates through the following segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The North America segment includes retail sales of consumer products and subscriptions through North America-focused websites such as www.amazon.com and www.amazon.ca.
The International segment offers retail sales of consumer products and subscriptions through internationally-focused websites. The Amazon Web Services segment involves in the global sales of compute, storage, database, and AWS service offerings for start-ups, enterprises, government agencies, and academic institutions. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in July 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. –CNNMoney
