Microsoft protests Amazon win of big US cloud contract

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Microsoft on Thursday confirmed it is challenging a decision to award a multibillion-dollar cloud computing contract to its rival Amazon.

US media reports said the contract valued at $10 billion is for modernizing storage of classified data at the National Security Agency (NSA).

"Based on the decision we are filing an administrative protest via the Government Accountability Office," Microsoft said in response to an AFP inquiry.

"We are exercising our legal rights and will do so carefully and responsibly."

The NSA spokesperson said that it "will respond to the protest in accordance with appropriate federal regulations," while Amazon declined to comment.

A post on the Government Accountability Office website showed that it is considering a protest filed by Microsoft in July concerning the NSA, but provided no details.

The move came as payback of sorts for Amazon successfully protesting a different $10-billion cloud computing contract that had been awarded to Microsoft.

The Pentagon in July scrapped the deal, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, sidestepping a bitter dispute between Amazon and Microsoft over allegations of political bias that swayed the bidding.

Microsoft in late 2019 won the JEDI contract, sparking a challenge by Amazon on grounds that then president Donald Trump may have improperly influenced the outcome.

Amazon alleged it was shut out of the deal because of what it called Trump's vendetta against the company and its chief executive Jeff Bezos.

Agence France-Presse

‘Best day ever’: Billionaire Bezos has successful suborbital jaunt

VAN HORN, Texas—Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, soared about 107 kilometers above the Texas desert aboard his company Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle on Tuesday and returned safely to Earth, a historic suborbital flight that helps to inaugurate a new era of private commercial space tourism. 

"Best day ever," Bezos, accompanied by the world's oldest and youngest space travelers, said after his space capsule descended with three large parachutes and touched down, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The 57-year-old American billionaire, wearing a blue flight suit and donning a cowboy hat, was joined by three crewmates for a trip to the edge of space lasting 10 minutes and 10 seconds. After landing, Bezos and the other crew members exchanged hugs and popped champagne, spraying each other.

"Astronaut Bezos in my seat — happy, happy, happy," Bezos said in response to a mission control status check after the crew members buckled back in aboard New Shepard's capsule following a few minutes of weightlessness in space. 

The fully autonomous 60-foot-tall gleaming white spacecraft, with a blue feather design on its side, ignited its BE-3 engines for a vertical liftoff from Blue Origin's Launch Site One facility about 32 km outside the rural town of Van Horn. There were generally clear skies with a few patchy clouds on a cool morning for the launch. 

Bezos, founder of ecommerce company Amazon.com Inc, and his brother Mark Bezos, a private equity executive, were joined by two others. Pioneering female aviator Wally Funk, 82, and recent high school graduate Oliver Daemen, 18, became the oldest and youngest people to reach space.

The flight came nine days after Briton Richard Branson was aboard his competing space tourism company Virgin Galactic's successful inaugural suborbital flight from New Mexico. The two flights give credibility and inject enthusiasm into the fledgling space tourism industry that Swiss bank UBS estimates will be worth $3 billion annually in a decade.

Bezos, who founded Blue Origin two decades ago, described the company's first crewed space flight as a step toward an ambitious future. Blue Origin plans for two more passenger flights this year. Bezos said it has not determined its future pace of flights after that but said it is approaching $100 million in private sales.

"The demand is very, very high," Bezos told a news conference.

"We're going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build a future. ... We need to do that to solve the problems here on Earth," Bezos added.

Bezos said the architecture and technology for the flight was "overkill for a little tourism mission."

"Big things start small," Bezos added. 

-reuters-    

Bezos says Amazon needs better 'vision' for workers

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday told investors the e-commerce giant needs a better "vision" for its workers, just days after an effort to create the company's first labor union was defeated.

Defending Amazon's treatment of employees, Bezos laid out a new goal for the company to be "Earth's best employer and Earth's safest place to work," in his final letter as chief executive.

"Despite what we've accomplished, it's clear to me that we need a better vision for our employees' success," Bezos said in the letter.

Bezos will remain chairman of the board after he resigns as chief executive later this year, handing control of Amazon to Andy Jassy of the company's cloud services unit.

A contentious unionization drive at an Amazon warehouse in the southern US state of Alabama failed last week as a vote count showed a wide majority of workers rejecting the move.

"Bezos's admission today demonstrates that what we have been saying about workplace conditions is correct," said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the union that vied to represent Amazon workers.

"But his admission won't change anything, workers need a union –- not just another Amazon public relations effort in damage control."

Bezos contended that he took no comfort in the unionization failure.

"While the voting results were lopsided and our direct relationship with employees is strong, it's clear to me that we need a better vision for how we create value for employees," Bezos said in the letter.

He rejected news reports that he said unfairly portray Amazon workers as "desperate souls and treated as robots."

"That's not accurate," Bezos said.

"They’re sophisticated and thoughtful people who have options for where to work."

Unions and political leaders have argued that Amazon employees face constant pressure and monitoring, with little job protection, highlighting the need for collective bargaining.

Amazon has argued that most of its workers don't want or need a union and that it already provides more than most other employers, with a minimum $15 hourly wage and other benefits.

The Seattle-based technology and e-commerce powerhouse hired 500,000 people last year and now directly employs 1.3 million people globally, according to Bezos.

Amazon plans to invest more than $300 million this year into workplace safety projects, and roll out a software program that figures out how to rotate employees between jobs to reduce chances of injuries caused by repetitive motions.

Agence France-Presse

Elon Musk leaves behind Amazon's Bezos to become world's richest person: Bloomberg News

Tesla Inc chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk surpassed Amazon.com Inc's top boss Jeff Bezos to become the world's richest man, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

Including Thursday's gains in Tesla shares, Musk, 49, had a net worth of more than $188.5 billion, $1.5 billion more than Bezos, the report said.

Musk's personal wealth has been boosted by last year's more than eight-fold surge in the shares of Tesla, which became the world's most valuable carmaker.

He has a 20 percent stake in the carmaker and about $42 billion of unrealized paper gains on vested stock options, according to the Bloomberg report.

Tesla shares were up as much as 7.4 percent on Thursday at a record high of $811.61.

The Forbes Billionaires List, however, said Musk still trails Amazon's Bezos by $7.8 billion.

Forbes has a more conservative estimate based on the Tesla stake that he has pledged as a collateral for personal loans. To take that into account, it applies a 25 percent discount to his shareholding, according to its report in November.

Musk, who co-founded and sold Internet payments company PayPal Holdings Inc, now leads some of the most futuristic companies in the world.

Besides Tesla, he heads rocket company SpaceX and Neuralink, a startup that is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.

He set up the Boring Company to make affordable tunnels below busy city streets for an all-electric public transportation system to avoid the nasty traffic jams in US cities.

-reuters-

Bezos, Zuckerberg join White House phone calls on reopening U.S. economy

Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.com Inc, and Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Inc's CEO, on Wednesday participated in White House conference calls about how to reopen the U.S. economy in light of the coronavirus pandemic, company representatives said.

The phone calls followed an announcement Tuesday by President Donald Trump about the formation of advisory groups on how to open up the country, which include other top U.S. executives such as Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook and JPMorgan Chase & Co chief Jamie Dimon.

Business leaders told Trump the country needs much more coronavirus testing before the public would be confident enough to participate in reopening the economy, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The president, on Twitter, called the calls "very productive", adding that corporate leaders were "all-in on getting America back to work, and soon."

Some 94 percent of Americans have been under government stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which causes the potentially lethal respiratory illness COVID-19. The orders, including mandatory business closures, have battered the U.S. economy and left millions of Americans unemployed.

Trump has turned to Corporate America to help plot a course forward. He has often sought business leaders' assistance, as with a previously announced drive-through testing program with prominent retailers including Walmart Inc.

However, relations between the White House and Amazon - the world's largest online retailer - have at times appeared strained. Trump, for instance, has described the Bezos-owned Washington Post as Amazon’s “chief lobbyist.” The top editor of the newspaper, which has published articles critical of the president, has said Bezos has no involvement in its news coverage. (Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin and Katie Paul in San Francisco Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)

-reuters-

Billionaire Bezos buys estate for $165 million: report

SAN FRANCISCO -- Billionaire Amazon chief Jeff Bezos has purchased a Los Angeles-area estate for $165 million, setting a new record for the region, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Bezos bought the Warner Estate from media mogul David Geffen, according to the Journal.

It said the deal topped a Los Angeles-area home price record set last year when Lachlan Murdoch paid around $150 million for a Bel-Air estate seen in "The Beverly Hillbillies," a 1960s television show.

The Warner Estate spans nine acres (3.6 hectares) in Beverly Hills. It is a Georgian-style compound with a floor once owned by Napoleon, guest houses, a tennis court, and a nine-hole golf course.

It was originally built in the 1930s by the late Jack Warner, former president of Warner Brothers, the Journal reported.

Bezos, whose worth has been estimated at more than $110 billion, started internet colossus Amazon and is considered the richest person in the world.

Amazon has expanded from its original mission as an online retailer and now is a major force in cloud computing. Its digital assistant Alexa has been incorporated into thousands of consumer products, and the firm operates one of the largest streaming video services.

Bezos also owns The Washington Post newspaper.

Agence France-Presse

Saudi involved in hacking of Amazon boss Bezos' phone, UN report will say

SAN FRANCISCO/CAIRO - Two UN officials will report on Wednesday that there is enough evidence suggesting that Saudi Arabia had hacked Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos' phone and both the kingdom and the United States should investigate, a person familiar with the matter said.

The United Nations' officials plan a public statement asserting that they found credible a forensic report commissioned by Bezos' security team which concluded that his phone probably had been hacked with a tainted video sent from a WhatsApp account belonging to Saudi's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The report by FTI Consulting concluded that massive amounts of data began leaving Bezos’ phone about a month after the video was shared in mid-2018, the person said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject.

Outside experts consulted by the UN agreed that while the case was not airtight, the evidence was strong enough to warrant a fuller investigation.

The report is set to worsen relations between the world's richest man and the kingdom which had soured following the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, who was also a columnist for the Bezos' owned Washington Post.

The Guardian first reported the crown prince's alleged involvement. It said the encrypted message from the number used by the crown prince is believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated the phone Bezos had used and extracted large amounts of data.

Saudi Arabia's US embassy dismissed the report.

"Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos' phone are absurd. We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out," it said in a message posted on Twitter.

The UN statement will come from Agnes Callemard, special rapporteur for extra-judicial killings, and David Kaye, special rapporteur for free expression.

They are building toward a fuller report they expect to give to the UN in June, the person said. They said in Twitter posts that they will be releasing a statement on Wednesday addressing the Guardian report.

Amazon declined to comment.

The relationship between the Amazon chief executive and the Saudi government had soured since early last year after he alluded to Saudi Arabia's displeasure at the Washington Post's coverage of the murder of Khashoggi.

Bezos' security chief said at the time that Saudi had access to his phone and gained private information from it involving text messages between him and a former television anchor, who the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper said Bezos was dating.

Saudi had said it had nothing to do with the reporting. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Virgin Galactic becomes first space tourism company to land on Wall Street

NEW YORK -- Virgin Galactic landed on Wall Street Monday, debuting its listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in a first for a space tourism company.

Founder Richard Branson appeared on the floor of the NYSE to ring a bell marking the beginning of trading, as fireworks jetted behind him.

"We have pioneered several space milestones, including sending our chief astronaut trainer as the first passenger to space on a commercial spaceship," Virgin Galactic said on Twitter.

"Today, we tick off another first -- now anyone can invest in the future of space."

The company, which will trade under the initials SPCE, ended down 0.34 percent at $11.75, with a valuation of $969 million.

Virgin Galactic joined the NYSE after merging with Social Capital Hedosophia, which was already listed. This allowed it to skip the formal IPO process and bring in $450 million.

Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic has spent years developing its space program, and after a fatal accident in 2014, has twice crossed the barrier into the final frontier.

The company plans to offer weightless flights to six passengers at a time, at $250,000 (225,750 euros) a ticket for the first customers from the Summer of 2020, though it has yet to begin commercial launches. 

The client-astronauts will be able to float around the ship's cabin and look out of portholes to see the curvature of the Earth, all while surrounded by the blackness of space. 

More than 600 people have already signed up for the journey.

Branson is joined in the new space race by Blue Origin, founded by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, which wants to offer clients a few minutes of weightlessness aboard a small rocket that takes off vertically.

Tesla's Elon Musk has founded SpaceX, with an eye on long-range space travel.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon workers strike as 'Prime' shopping frenzy hits

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Amazon workers walked out of a main distribution center in Minnesota on Monday, protesting for improved working conditions during the e-commerce titan's major "Prime" shopping event.

Amazon workers picketed outside the facility, briefly delaying a few trucks and waving signs with messages along the lines of "We're human, not robots."

"We know Prime Day is a big day for Amazon, so we hope this strike will help executives understand how serious we are about wanting real change that will uplift the workers in Amazon's warehouses," striker Safiyo Mohamed said in a release.

"We create a lot of wealth for Amazon, but they aren't treating us with the respect and dignity that we deserve."

Organizers did not disclose the number of strikers, who said employees picketed for about an hour in intense heat before cutting the protest short due to the onset of heavy rain.

The strike was part of an ongoing effort to pressure the company on issues including job safety, equal opportunity in the workplace, and concrete action on issues including climate change, according to community organization Awood Center.

US Democratic presidential contenders Kamila Harris and Bernie Sanders were among those who expressed support for the strikers on Twitter.

"I stand in solidarity with the courageous Amazon workers engaging in a work stoppage against unconscionable working conditions in their warehouses," Sanders said in a tweet.

"It is not too much to ask that a company owned by the wealthiest person in the world treat its workers with dignity and respect."

Amazon employees also went on strike at seven locations in Germany, demanding better wages as the US online retail giant launched its two-day global shopping discount extravaganza called Prime Day.

Amazon had said in advance that the strike would not affect deliveries to customers.

Amazon has consistently defended work conditions, contending it is a leader when it comes to paying workers at least $15 hourly and providing benefits.

The company last week announced plans to offer job training to around one-third of its US workforce to help them gain skills to adapt to new technologies.

Amazon has been hustling to offer one-day delivery on a wider array of products as a perk for paying $119 annually to be a member of its "Prime" service, which includes streaming films and television shows.

The work action came on the opening day of a major "Prime" shopping event started in 2015.

Now in 17 countries, the event will span Monday and Tuesday, highlighted by a pre-recorded Taylor Swift video concert and promotions across a range of products and services from the e-commerce leader.

Prime Day sales for Amazon are expected to hit $5 billion this year, up from $3.2 billion in 2018, which at the time represented its biggest ever global shopping event, JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth says in a research note.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon founder Bezos' divorce final with $38-billion settlement

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos' divorce from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Bezos, was finalized by a Seattle-area judge on Friday, paving the way for her to receive $38.3 billion worth of Amazon stock, Bloomberg reported.

In April, Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer, said in a filing that 4 percent of its outstanding stock or 19.7 million shares would be registered in MacKenzie Bezos' name after court approval of the divorce.

The couple announced their plan to divorce in a joint Twitter statement in January, causing some to worry that Jeff Bezos could wind up with reduced Amazon voting power or that he or MacKenzie would liquidate large position.

He retains a 12-percent stake worth $114.8 billion and remains the world's richest person, Bloomberg said. MacKenzie Bezos has said she would give him voting control of her shares.

MacKenzie in May pledged to give half her fortune to charity to join the "Giving Pledge," a campaign announced by billionaire Warren Buffett and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates in 2010.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Billionaire Bezos unveils moon lander mockup, touts Blue Origin's lunar goals

WASHINGTON - Billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, founder of rocket company Blue Origin, unveiled on Thursday a mockup of a lunar lander spacecraft and discussed missions to the moon in a strategy tailored to the US government's renewed push to establish a lunar outpost in just 5 years.

Bezos, the world's richest man and also chief executive and founder of Amazon.com, told a rare media event in Washington that the lander, named Blue Moon, could deliver payloads to the moon's surface and deploy payloads during journey to Moon.

US Vice President Mike Pence in March called on NASA to build a space platform in lunar orbit and put American astronauts on the moon's south pole by 2024 "by any means necessary," 4 years earlier than previously planned.

"I love this," Bezos said of Pence's timeline. "We can help meet that timeline but only because we started 3 years ago. It's time to go back to the moon, this time to stay."

During his hour-long presentation at Washington's convention center, Bezos waved his arm and a black drape behind him dropped to reveal the two-story-tall unmanned lander mockup, which he said can deploy up to 4 smaller rovers and shoot out satellites to orbit the moon.

"This is an incredible vehicle and it's going to the moon," he added.

Bezos unveiled a model of one of the proposed rovers, which was roughly the size of a golf cart. Bezos also presented a new rocket engine called BE-7, which can blast 10,000 pounds (4,535 kg) of thrust.

Privately held Blue Origin, based in Kent, Washington, is developing its New Shepard rocket for short space tourism trips and a heavy-lift launch rocket called New Glenn for satellite launch contracts. It is aiming to deliver the New Glenn rocket by 2021, while launching humans in a suborbital flight later this year atop its rocket-and-capsule New Shepard.

Blue Origin has also previously discussed a human outpost on the moon.

NASA has already set its sights on the moon's south pole, a region believed to hold enough recoverable ice water for use in synthesizing additional rocket fuel as well as for drinking water.

Bezos, who has talked about his broader vision of enabling a future in which millions of people live and work in space, has been intent on moving Blue Origin closer to commercialization.

His announcement came about 2 months before the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, and he began his presentation with video of that event.

Bezos spoke of the importance of future human colonization of space and mentioned 2 important issues: reducing launch costs and using resources already in space.

"One of the most important things we know about the moon today is that there's water there," Bezos said. "It's in the form of ice. It's in the permanently shadowed craters on the poles of the moon."

His vision is shared by other billionaire-backed private space ventures like Elon Musk's SpaceX and aerospace incumbents like United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin.

While Bezos is angling to become a leading player in space exploration and win business from the US government, he has been the target of repeated criticism from President Donald Trump, who has referred to him as Jeff "Bozo." Bezos also owns the Washington Post, which Trump has frequently targeted in his broadsides about "fake news."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon's Bezos, ex-wife reach biggest divorce deal in history

NEW YORK - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie, finalized the biggest divorce settlement in history on Thursday, leaving him with 75 percent of their stock in the tech giant and giving her nearly $36 billion in shares.

MacKenzie Bezos said she would give all of her stake in The Washington Post and the space exploration firm Blue Origin to her ex-husband -- the world's richest man -- as well as voting control of her remaining Amazon stock.

Jeff Bezos, 55, and MacKenzie, 48, a novelist, married in 1993 and have four children. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in their Seattle garage in 1994 and turned it into a colossus that dominates online retail.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Amazon, which has a market capitalization of some $890 billion, said MacKenzie Bezos will control four percent of the company's outstanding common stock.

At Amazon's current share price that would be worth some $35.6 billion.

According to Forbes magazine, the divorce settlement makes MacKenzie Bezos the third wealthiest woman in the world after L'Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart's Alice Walton.

Jeff Bezos, who now owns 12 percent of Amazon, remains the world's richest man and the largest shareholder in the company with an estimated fortune of $110 billion, Forbes said, ahead of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett.

Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos announced their separation in January and posted Twitter messages on Thursday revealing the divorce settlement.

"Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support from each other and everyone who reached out to us in kindness," MacKenzie Bezos wrote.

"Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75% of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my shares to support his continued contributions with the teams of these incredible companies," MacKenzie Bezos said.

"Excited about my own plans. Grateful for the past as I look forward to what comes next," she said.

- 'Partner, ally, and mother' -
Jeff Bezos, in a Twitter message of his own, said his now ex-wife has been "an extraordinary partner, ally, and mother."

"She is resourceful and brilliant and loving, and as our futures unroll, I know I'll always be learning from her," he said.

"I'm grateful for her support and for her kindness in this process and am very much looking forward to our new relationship as friends and co-parents," Bezos added.

Bezos has largely kept his personal life private during his years steering Amazon.

But it was thrust into the spotlight with the announcement in January that he and his wife were divorcing after 25 years of marriage and the revelation by the National Enquirer that he had been having an affair with a former news anchor, Lauren Sanchez.

When the National Enquirer, controlled by President Donald Trump's ally David Pecker, threatened to release lurid, intimate pictures of Bezos and Sanchez, Bezos fought back by releasing the details of his exchanges publicly.

"Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten," Bezos wrote in a blog post.

A lawyer for the National Enquirer denied that the supermarket tabloid had tried to extort and blackmail the Amazon founder.

Trump has been a frequent critic of the Post, which Bezos purchased in 2013, claiming that the newspaper is biased against him and calling it the "Amazon Washington Post."

Amazon shares were down 0.28 percent at $1,815.69 in New York on Thursday shortly before the close of trading.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Investigator says Amazon chief's phone hacked by Saudis

WASHINGTON--The investigator hired to look into the release of intimate images of Jeff Bezos said Saturday he has concluded that Saudi Arabian authorities hacked the Amazon chief's phone to access his personal data.

Gavin de Becker linked the hack to extensive coverage by The Washington Post newspaper, which is owned by Bezos, of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last year.

"Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos' phone, and gained private information," de Becker wrote on The Daily Beast website.

He said that while the brother of Bezos's mistress was paid by the National Enquirer scandal sheet for the release of the information, his role may have been a red herring, and the plot went far beyond one man seeking to cash in.

"It's clear that MBS considers The Washington Post to be a major enemy," de Becker wrote, referring to the oil-rich kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom the US Senate, after a closed-door briefing by the CIA, named as "responsible" for the murder.

But de Becker did not specify which part of the Saudi government he was blaming for the hack, and gave few details about the investigation that led him to the conclusion that the kingdom was responsible.

The results, he wrote, "have been turned over to federal officials."

Bezos hired Gavin de Becker & Associates to find out how his intimate text messages and photos made their way into the hands of the Enquirer, which reported on the Amazon chief's extramarital affair, leading to his divorce.

Bezos has accused Enquirer publisher American Media Inc, led by David Pecker, of "blackmail" for threatening to publish the intimate photos if he did not halt the investigation.

The Amazon chief declined to do so, instead publishing copies of emails from AMI.

Saudi Arabia has stressed that the crown prince was not involved in the killing of Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist.

Riyadh initially said it had no knowledge of his fate, but later blamed the murder on rogue agents.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Sex, plots and blackmail: the toxic politics behind Bezos claims

The stunning extortion claims made by Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos against the Trump-friendly National Enquirer tabloid -- have spotlighted a fierce behind-the-scenes media feud, taking place in an ever more toxic US political climate.

The story recounted by Bezos -- the world's richest man -- touches on political intrigue, sexual indiscretion, the murder of a Saudi journalist and bitter charges of media bias.

The supermarket tabloid last month reported Bezos had an extramarital affair with a former news anchor, publishing a trove of private text messages. The report appeared days after Bezos and his wife Mackenzie announced their divorce.

That prompted Bezos to launch an investigation into the Enquirer, and how it was able to obtain such intimate material.

In a post on the online platform Medium, Bezos said Enquirer publisher American Media Inc (AMI), led by David Pecker, a friend of President Donald Trump, was now threatening to publish intimate photos of him, if he did not call off the probe.

"Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten," Bezos wrote.

Bezos maintained that the Enquirer demanded that he and his security consultant Gavin de Becker, who is leading the probe, publically state they had "no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI's coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces."

- Saudi connection? -

The revelations appear to show the gossip tabloid trying to smear Bezos -- who Trump has repeatedly attacked as the owner of The Washington Post, a paper he claims is biased against him.

Bezos meanwhile hinted he may have been targeted by pro-Trump forces in part because of the Post's coverage of the murder of its contributor Jamal Khashoggi, who was strangled and dismembered by Saudi agents in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in October.

"The Post's essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles," he wrote.

Although Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is accused of ordering the assassination, the Trump administration has maintained there is no irrefutable evidence of his involvement, while stressing the importance of the strategic partnership between Washington and Riyadh.

Pointing at connections between Pecker, AMI and the government of Saudi Arabia, Bezos said he learned that "Pecker is 'apoplectic' about our investigation," and that "the Saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve."

American Media said in an emailed statement that it "believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr Bezos" and made "good faith negotiations" with the US billionaire but had decided nonetheless to "promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims" by the Amazon CEO.

Bezos pointed out that Pecker recently entered into an immunity deal with federal prosecutors on his role in so-called "catch and kill" stories -- in which reports are quashed by paying off sources -- about Trump and his alleged mistresses.

But Pecker and his Enquirer colleagues could face fresh criminal investigations based on the Bezos allegations, according to former federal prosecutor Jacob Frenkel.

The allegations "easily could fall into possible violations of federal criminal statutes involving extortion or wire fraud," the attorney said.

- Deepening political feuds? -

The case highlights a politically-tinged feud between the Post owner and the supermarket tabloid, with Bezos asserting that he would not be intimidated.

Releasing the email exchanges, he said, shows "the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press... And there's an associated threat: They'll keep the photos on hand and publish them in the future if we ever deviate from that lie."

The disclosures are also likely to deepen the rift between Bezos and Trump, who claims that the tech entrepreneur is using the newspaper for his own purposes.

Taking aim last month at Bezos, Trump alluded to Enquirer reporting of the billionaire's relationship with the former news anchor and entertainment reporter, Lauren Sanchez. 

"So sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo being taken down by a competitor whose reporting, I understand, is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post," he tweeted.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon's Bezos says National Enquirer tried to blackmail him over 'intimate photos'

Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos posted a blog on Thursday saying the National Enquirer's parent company American Media Inc (AMI) tried to blackmail him with the threat of publishing "intimate photos."

The blog post is the latest twist in a weeks-long saga that has brought the personal life of Bezos, the richest person in the world, into the spotlight.

Bezos and his wife announced last month that they were divorcing after 25 years of marriage, following a period of "loving exploration" and trial separation. That same day, the National Enquirer touted that it would publish alleged intimate text messages between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, whom he was said to be dating.

Since the tabloid affair, Bezos opened an investigation into the leak led by Gavin de Becker, a public safety expert and former appointee of US President Ronald Reagan. De Becker proceeded to tell media that the leak was politically motivated, which, according to Bezos's blog post Thursday, concerned AMI.

"In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal," Bezos wrote. "They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we 'have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.'"

AMI did not immediately return a request for comment.

Bezos, who owns more than $120 billion in Amazon stock, continued, "If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?" 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

The Jeff Bezos divorce: $136 billion and Amazon in the middle

NEW YORK -- The announcement by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest man, and his wife that they will divorce has captivated the imagination -- how will they split his giant fortune, estimated at $136 billion?

And what will happen to the Internet retail giant -- will his soon-to-be ex get a significant stake, and how would that affect his control of the company?

The former MacKenzie Tuttle knew the 54-year-old Bezos before fame and wealth came calling. 

The couple met in 1992 when he was a hedge fund manager on Wall Street, before he became an entrepreneur who changed the way hundreds of millions of people live. They married less than a year later.

She was by his side for the entire Amazon adventure, from the company's humble beginnings in his Seattle garage in 1994 to its mammoth success today. They have four children -- three sons and an adopted daughter -- aged up to their late teens.

As of Wednesday, when the couple formally announced they would divorce after a long separation, the 48-year-old MacKenzie, a novelist, is likely to become the richest woman in the world.

According to celebrity news outlet TMZ, the Bezoses did not have a prenuptial agreement -- which could mean an even split of assets. 

They were married in Florida in September 1993, according to documents seen by AFP. But their last place of residence would be the deciding factor in any divorce proceedings.

The couple has numerous residences: in Seattle, where Amazon is based, but also in Washington DC, Texas and Beverly Hills, California.

'CHERISHED FRIENDS'

According to Randall Kessler, a founding partner at Atlanta family law firm Kessler and Solomiany, the location will not matter so much.

"Some states have community property, some states have equitable division which means fair division, but even in those states, it usually comes out 50-50. That's the starting point," he said.

Bezos, who was once Amazon's primary stakeholder, now owns about 16 percent of the company -- the bulk of his net worth.

At mid-day Thursday, that stake translated to about $130 billion.

Any divorce settlement would include his stock portfolio. If it were split in half, that would leave Bezos -- who still runs the company -- with an 8 percent stake.

So far, that prospect has not frayed Wall Street, with Amazon shares even up slightly on the Nasdaq on Wednesday after the announcement, only to fall back Thursday.

Hedge fund investor Doug Kass announced that he had sold off his shares after the divorce announcement -- which had an upbeat tone, with the pair saying they remained "cherished friends."

Given they appear to be on good terms, they could decide to put their shares into a trust or other legal mechanism in order to maintain the same power among Amazon's shareholders.

MacKenzie could also opt to transfer her voting rights, should she earn half the stake in a settlement, according to Margaret Ryznar, a law professor at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).

'PROTECT THE COMPANY'

"Voting rights may not be that important in this case because Jeff Bezos is currently a minority shareholder anyway," Ryznar says.

"Much of his influence in Amazon comes instead from his position within the company as its founder and CEO."

For Kessler, "if they want to protect the company, they'll find a way to give her an interest in the company that doesn't affect the running of the company."

Of course, the couple may have a post-nuptial deal that will be revealed in the coming months.

They may also end up in an acrimonious divorce, which would surely cloud the prospects of Amazon, both on Wall Street and from a public relations perspective.

The National Enquirer tabloid reported Thursday that Bezos was in a relationship with the wife of powerful Hollywood talent agent Patrick Whitesell, former news anchor and entertainment reporter Lauren Sanchez.

The relationship, launched 8 months ago, was the final nail in the coffin of the troubled Bezos marriage, the tabloid said.

"Clients come to see me all the time and they always say that this is going to be uncontested -- 'We're both reasonable, we both agree that it should be fair'," Kessler says. 

"The problem sometimes is that people disagree on what fair is, or on what reasonable is. Right now they agree. I hope they continue to agree, but who knows what they might disagree on."

And any disagreement would be a field day for their attorneys.

"If they disagree, that's where lawyers make money," Kessler said.

When asked about the Bezos divorce on Thursday, President Donald Trump, himself twice divorced, said: "I wish him luck. It's going to be a beauty."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon picks New York, Washington DC area for new offices

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON -- Amazon.com Inc picked America's financial and political capitals for massive new offices on Tuesday, branching out from its home base in Seattle with plans to create more than 25,000 jobs in both New York City and an area just outside Washington, DC.

The world's largest online retailer plans to spend $5 billion on the 2 new developments in Long Island City and Arlington, Virginia, and expects to get more than $2 billion in tax credits and incentives with plans to apply for more.

The prize, which Amazon called HQ2, attracted hundreds of proposals from across North America in a year-long bidding war that garnered widespread publicity for the company. Amazon ended the frenzy by dividing the spoils between the two most powerful East Coast US cities and offering a consolation prize of a 5,000-person center in Nashville, Tennessee, focused on technology and management for retail operations.

Losers said they learned from the process, while winners said it was costly but worthwhile.

"Either you are creating jobs or you are losing jobs," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a news conference on Tuesday.

With more than 610,000 workers worldwide, Amazon is already one of the biggest employers in the United States and the world's third-most valuable company, behind Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp.

Still, it faces fierce competition for talent from Alphabet Inc's Google and other companies working to build new technologies in the cloud. Those rivals routinely offer free food and perks in sunny California, seen by many as a better draw than Amazon's relative frugality in rain-plagued Seattle. Google also has a growing footprint in New York City.

Already marketing its forthcoming location in the New York City borough of Queens, Amazon talked up Long Island City's breweries, waterfront parks and easy transit access. Rents there are typically lower than in Midtown Manhattan, which is just across the East River. The former industrial area also has a clock counting down the hours until the end of U.S. President Donald Trump's first term in office.

The choice of Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from downtown Washington DC, could hand Amazon greater political influence in the US capital, where it has one of the largest lobbying shops in town. Locating close to the Pentagon may also help Amazon win a $10 billion cloud-computing contract from the U.S. Department of Defense, said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive and the world's richest person, privately owns the Washington Post, which has written critical articles about Trump. In turn, Bezos's companies have been a frequent target of broadsides from the president. The newspaper maintains full editorial independence from its owner.

Amazon's choice largely bypassed the middle of the United States, where many cities had hoped for an economic boost and bid for the new jobs. The company already had large corporate workforces in greater Washington and New York.

"My heart is broken today," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said.

TAX BREAKS

At the outset of its search last year, Amazon said it was looking for a business-friendly environment. The company said it would receive performance-based incentives of $1.525 billion from the state of New York, including an average $48,000 for each job it creates.

It can also apply for other tax incentives, such as New York City's Relocation and Employment Assistance Program that offers tax breaks potentially worth $900 million over 12 years. What benefit the company would actually get was unclear.

In Virginia, Amazon will receive performance-based incentives of $573 million, including an average $22,000 for each job it creates.

These rewards come on top of $1.6 billion in subsidies Amazon has received across the United States since 2000, according to a database from the Washington-based watchdog Good Jobs First.

Amazon says it has invested $160 billion in the country since 2010 and that the new offices will generate more than $14 billion in extra tax revenue for New York, Virginia and Tennessee over the next two decades.

It expects an average wage of more than $150,000 for employees in each new office.

HOUSING CRISIS

Amazon's emphasis on new, high-paying jobs earned publicity as it faced criticism for low wages in its sprawling warehouses.

The company got $148 million worth of media attention across the English-language press in the two months following the launch of its search last September, according to media measurement and analytics firm mediaQuant Inc.

Amazon received 238 proposals and New York and Virginia beat out 18 other finalists from a January short list, which included Los Angeles and Chicago.

New Jersey made headlines early in the contest by proposing $7 billion in potential credits against state and city taxes if Amazon located in Newark and stuck to hiring commitments.

Others with less money to offer took a more creative approach: the mayor of the Atlanta suburb of Stonecrest, Jason Lary, said he would create a new city from industrial land called Amazon and name Bezos its mayor for life.

In evaluating its options, Amazon looked at the quality of schools, meeting with superintendents to discuss education in science and math. Amazon also wanted helicopter landing pads for the new sites, documents it released on Tuesday show.

The company had to navigate community issues at its more than 45,000-person urban campus in Seattle. An affordable housing crisis there prompted the city council to adopt a head tax on businesses in May, which Amazon helped overturn in a subsequent city council vote.

Some critics had pushed for more transparency from cities and states in the bidding process, warning that the benefits of hosting a massive Amazon office may not offset the taxpayer-funded incentives and other costs.

"Our subways are crumbling, our children lack school seats, and too many of our neighbors lack adequate health care," New York State Senator Michael Gianaris and City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer said in a joint statement. "It is unfathomable that we would sign a $3 billion check to Amazon in the face of these challenges."

Amazon shares closed down 0.3 percent at $1631.17, giving the company a market value of almost $800 billion.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Jeff Bezos space project lands big rocket partnership

SAN FRANCISCO - Jeff Bezos backed Blue Origin space exploration project on Thursday landed a major deal to provide engines for a next-generation rocket being built by a major US launch services contractor.

United Launch Alliance said that Blue Origin will provide engines for the booster stage of a next-generation rocket -- the Vulcan Centaur -- which is on track to take to the sky in the year 2020.

ULA was created as a joint venture by Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

"Vulcan Centaur will revolutionize spaceflight and provide affordable, reliable access to space for our current and future customers," ULA chief executive Tory Bruno said in a release.

"We are pleased to enter into this partnership with Blue Origin and look forward to a successful first flight of our next-generation launch vehicle."

The design of the new rocket is nearing completion, and it will be able to carry payloads into orbit around the Earth, according to Bruno.

"United Launch Alliance is the premier launch service provider for national security missions, and we're thrilled to be part of their team and that mission," said Blue Origin chief executive Bob Smith.

Bezos is behind private space exploration operation Blue Origin, into which he usually invests money from selling Amazon shares.

Blue Origin has outlined plans to build a spaceship and lunar lander capable of delivering cargo to the moon, perhaps to support colonies there.

gc/ia

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon's Jeff Bezos unveils $2 billion philanthropic fund

WASHINGTON -- Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the richest person on the planet, said Thursday he was creating a philanthropic fund to help homeless families and launch preschools in low-income communities, committing an initial $2 billion to the cause.

Bezos made the announcement on Twitter a year after asking for ideas on how he could use his personal fortune -- now estimated at more than $160 billion -- for charitable efforts.

The "Bezos Day One Fund" created by Bezos and his wife MacKenzie will focus on 2 areas: helping "existing nonprofits that help homeless families" and funding "a network of new, nonprofit, tier-one preschools in low-income communities," he wrote.

For the homeless, grants will be given to organizations "doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the needs of young families," Bezos said.

The fund will also seek to launch and operate "a network of high-quality, full-scholarship, Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities," he wrote.

"We will build an organization to directly operate these schools."

Bezos said the schools would "use the same set of principles that have driven Amazon" and that "the child will be the customer."

EARLY STEPS ON CHARITY

The $2 billion initiative, while significant, is far less than the philanthropic efforts of other billionaires including Microsoft's Bill Gates, who has donated tens of billions to his foundation, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who has pledged to donate 99 percent of his shares in the social media giant to an organization focused on public good.

It also falls short of the "giving pledge" initiative launched by Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who have encouraged wealthy individuals to pledge half their fortunes for philanthropy.

Bezos's fortune comes mainly from his stake in Amazon, the diversified online firm which briefly hit $1 trillion in market value this month and is the second most valuable company after Apple.

He also operates the private space exploration firm Blue Origin and owns The Washington Post newspaper.

Despite his fortune, Bezos has not been a major philanthropic donor and Amazon has been criticized in its home of Seattle, Washington, for doing little to address problems of the growing homeless population.

Last year, he donated $33 million to fund scholarship for "dreamers," the name given to undocumented children of immigrants who face legal obstacles in attending college or university.

He has also made donations for cancer research and to Princeton University, his alma mater.

AMAZON'S TENTACLES

Bezos's personal wealth has soared with the value of Amazon, whose stock price has doubled over the past year with its expansion into new sectors and geographies.

Launched in 1994 as an online bookseller, Amazon has become a retail powerhouse operating globally, and has expanded into streaming video, music, cloud computing and other segments, and last year acquired the Whole Foods grocery chain. Amazon's digital assistant Alexa has helped drive its hardware sales and is used on smart devices ranging from cars to refrigerators.

According to the research firm eMarketer, Amazon's e-commerce revenue will grow more than 28 percent this year to reach $394 billion, and will account for 49 percent of US online retail sales and nearly five percent of all retail spending.

Some analysts have suggested Amazon could face antitrust scrutiny over its growing power in the economy, and President Donald Trump has accused the company of taking advantage of the Postal Service, despite studies suggesting the internet giant's deal has been beneficial to the US government postal operator.

Amazon has faced criticism for paying little in taxes, which stems in part from its historically low profits.

It has also won tax breaks in many areas for its warehouses and distribution centers, and has been running a highly publicized effort for a second North American headquarters, prompting proposals for tax reductions and incentives.

Amazon has selected 20 cities as "finalists" for the headquarters and has indicated it would make a decision by year-end.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos rockets to richest person on the planet

As Amazon became the second US firm to hit a trillion-dollar value on the stock market, founder Jeff Bezos regained the crown as the richest person on the planet.

Amazon's share price has climbed during the year, lifting the personal wealth of the company's 54-year-old founder with it. Forbes estimated his net worth about $166 billion.

He has gone on record with a formula for success that includes taking bold bets, riding change and rebounding from setbacks.

"You need to be nimble and robust so you need to be able to take a punch and you also need to be quick and innovative and do new things at a higher speed, that's the best defense against the future," Bezos said in an interview published in Vanity Fair magazine last year.

"You have to always be leaning into the future. If you're leaning away from the future, the future is gonna win, every time."

- Tinkering toddler -

Jeffrey Preston Bezos's penchant for experimenting reportedly dates to a young age -- with one widely-recounted story telling that he tried to dismantle his own crib as a toddler.

His mother was a teenager when she gave birth to Bezos in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964.

"You shaped us, you protected us, you let us fall, you picked us up, and you loved us, always and unconditionally," Bezos said in a Twitter message thanking his mom "for everything" on Mother's Day in May.

She remarried when her son was about four years old, and he was legally adopted by his Cuban immigrant stepfather who worked as an engineer at a major petrochemical company.

"My dad came here from Cuba all by himself without speaking English when he was 16 years old, and has been kicking ass ever since," Bezos said in a Father's Day tweet in June.

"Thank you for all the love and heart, Dad!"

His mother's family were settlers in Texas, where Bezos spent many a summer working at a ranch owned by a grandfather retired from a job as a regional director at the US Atomic Energy Commission.

Bezos was enchanted by computer science when the IT industry was in its infancy and he studied engineering at Princeton University.

After graduating, he put his skills to work on Wall Street, where by 1990 he had risen to be a senior vice president at investment firm D.E. Shaw.

He surprised peers by leaving his high-paid position about four years later to open an online bookseller called Amazon.com, which according to legend was started in a garage in a Seattle suburb. Bezos was backed by money borrowed from his parents.

Bezos went from being a boy with a love for how things work to being the man who built Amazon.com into an internet powerhouse.

Amazon grew to dominate commerce and become a formidable contender in cloud computing, streaming television, and artificial intelligence with its digital assistant Alexa.

- Long-term thinking -

Bezos has such a proven track record for shaking up the business sectors he enters that he has been dubbed "disruptor-in-chief."

Like his company, Bezos has transformed with time, shaving his head and bulking up his body with exercise. The results were immortalized in a series of photos taken at a conference last year.

A fan of science fiction and in particular the British author Iain Banks, Bezos has passions other than Amazon.

Bezos called Banks "a huge personal favorite" in a tweet early this year while announcing that Amazon Prime video service was working on a television series based on one of the author's novels.

Bezos has invested some $42 million in the building a 150-meter-tall clock designed to keep time for 10,000 years. Built inside a mountain in Texas, the clock will be powered by geothermal energy.

"Humans are now technologically advanced enough that we can create not only extraordinary wonders but also civilization-scale problems," Bezos said in a blog post devoted to the clock project.

"We're likely to need more long-term thinking."

Bezos is also behind private space exploration operation Blue Origin, into which he usually invests money from selling Amazon shares.

Blue Origin has outlined plans to build a spaceship and lunar lander capable of delivering cargo to the moon, perhaps to support colonies there.

With the purchase of The Washington Post in 2013, the Internet entrepreneur added a prestigious news operation to his investments.

The Post, and Bezos himself, have been targeted by US President Donald Trump. An open critic of Trump, Bezos has jokingly offered to send him into space.

Bezos has been married to Mackenzie Bezos, a writer, since 1993. They have four children. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com