Jeff Bezos zipping past Bill Gates as world's richest person as Amazon stock surges
SEATTLE _ Amazon founder Jeff Bezos seemed poised to capture the title of the world's richest person, hurtling past Microsoft counterpart Bill Gates, as the value of his stake in the online retailer surged after an upbeat earnings report.
Shares of both Amazon and Microsoft soared toward record highs on Friday, bolstered by strong quarterly financial results that had Wall Street analysts scrambling to revise their already sunny forecasts for the technology giants.
Amazon's stock jumped 12.9 percent, to $1,097.50 in early afternoon trading in New York. That made Microsoft's healthy gain _ 7.3 percent, to $84.47 a share _ look meager by comparison. It also made Bezos the world's richest man, by Bloomberg News calculations, a title he had briefly held earlier this year when Amazon shares crested above $1,000 a share in July.
_The Seattle Times
