From The Wall Street Journal:
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is set to finalize the purchase of three New York apartments Tuesday in a deal valued at around $80 million, according to people familiar with the transaction.
Mr. Bezos is buying a penthouse and two units directly beneath it at 212 Fifth Avenue, located near Madison Square Park, these people said. The main penthouse alone spans three floors, with a private elevator and large terraces, according to StreetEasy. If turned into a single-family home the three units would total more than 17,000 square feet, with 12 bedrooms.
. . . .
The deal comes almost four months after Mr. Bezos’s company ditched plans for a corporate headquarters in the Long Island City area of New York, and amid his divorcefrom longtime wife MacKenzie Bezos. Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index pegs his net worth at $106 billion. A spokesman for Mr. Bezos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
. . . .
Mr. Bezos also has homes in Beverly Hills, Calif., Washington, D.C., West Texas and Medina, Washington.
Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal (Sorry if you encounter a paywall)
Nobody has asked PG’s opinion about this report.
But he does have the password for TPV.
PG fears this may be an indicator that Bezos will be taking his eye off the Amazon ball or focusing on Amazon less adroitly than he has in the past.
PG is aware of all the powerful communications systems Mr. Bezos can utilize to be virtually face-to-face with any Amazonian in the world from wherever Jeff is at a particular moment. PG is also aware that Mr. Bezos has access to a fleet of private jets that can take him across the country or around the world wherever duty might call. If Mr. Bezos wants to stay where he is, those same jets can bring as many Amazon executives as Jeff desires to meet with to him.
However, if this purchase means that Jeff is going to be spending a lot more time in New York City while the Amazon mothership remains in Seattle, PG is concerned. Part of his concern arises from experiences as an executive who didn’t live close to corporate headquarters earlier in his career.
Nobody in Seattle will be able to bump into him the hall or casually drop in on Jeff for a talk while Jeff is in New York. Various and sundry small signals that Jeff may be about to make a mistake will not be as easily discerned as they would be if Jeff were physically located closer to where his key executives spend most of their days.
PG is not an expert on society in either Medina, Washington, or in New York City, but he suspects Jeff will receive more invitations to social events with fellow billionaires in New York than he would in suburban Seattle. (Bill Gates also lives in Medina, but PG doesn’t think he throws a lot of parties with major media stars.)
Perhaps, Jeff is capable of keeping his eye firmly on Amazon’s ball in Seattle from 2900 miles away, but PG worries that such may not be the case.
Whenever Bezos retired, CEO succession at Amazon was going to be worrying for those who had emotional or financial investments in the company. However, a semi-retirement by Jeff is even more concerning for PG than a full retirement with a carefully-selected replacement ready to step into command would be.
Two points here:
1- Bezos relies heavily on email. More than personal interaction. He also travels a lot so being in Seattle is not critical to the running of the Empire. Note that one of the key criteria listed during the HQ2 hunt was proximity (in time) to a major airport.
2- Amazon is not a single top down company but rather a conglomerate. Think of it as a federated company with each unit (Amazon LLC, KIVA, LAB126, APub, AWS, Audible, Whole Foods, etc) all running (mostly) independently. Bezos is overlord of the Empire but he long ago gave up most of the day to day power.
After nearly 25 years Amazon culture should be well established so he can shift more of his attention to other projects, whether it be Blue Origin, politics, or a mid-life crisis.
Try this, folks:
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/jeff-bezos-empire-chart/
^
This
I think modern business overlooks this aspect of physically working together. Toward the end of my career, companies encouraged people to work from home, and many employees preferred this. It did have its advantages, such as being able to wait for a plumber to show up without needing to take a day off from work.
But I can’t count the times when, sitting in a cube farm, I’d overhear two or more of my coworkers having a discussion on a topic I had knowledge of and being able to see something they were missing. Of course, I hopped up and joined the conversation then. Or the random meetings in hallways where you’d meet someone and they’d say something like, “Are you going to the meeting with X Company?” and it would be a meeting I had no idea was happening.
All of these informal connections are very important and something that doesn’t happen via email, phone, or Slack.
Rumor has it Amazon is still looking at a NYC corporate office, tax breaks or no tax breaks. I wouldn’t necessarily take this apartment purchase as an indication Bezos is stepping back.
I recently read this piece from a fellow tech wonder pointing out that when the top dog in a company starts to exhibit signs of hubris, the organization as a whole is nearing its decline.
I’m no judge of how Bezos personally stacks up against these kinds of indicators/accusations, but even the mighty can fall. I hope the company overall is structured to keep moving in good directions when he eventually hands off the reins to someone else. Retirement or no, even a tech billionaire can’t live forever.
It certainly does make you think about what would happen to the ebook market if Amazon shifted directions.
“It certainly does make you think about what would happen to the ebook market if Amazon shifted directions.”
Yes and no. Amazon has shown what the ebook market ‘can’ be like, making it more likely another may follow if/when Amazon falls.
I’m betting he’s decided that he has to be out that way often enough that having a place of his own would make him more comfortable. It sounds big enough for staff on premise and still give him a place to entertain if/as needed.
And to him the price was couch change.
To the concern Amazon will miss him, I have a feeling he’s picked his underlings carefully and they know what the boss intends/expects to happen how.
MYMV and you know which way the wind is blowing you. 😉
I think Amazon has become pretty much what it’s going to be.
Even billionaires are subject to midlife crises.
He got his start in business on Wall Street so he may want a cozy bachelor pad for the next phase of his life. 🙂
He may want a ‘comfortable’ place on the east coast, since there are more rumblings out of Washington DC about looking into corporate misdeeds by Amazon. He may feel the need to work the east coast centers of power, and yes this might distract him from Amazon nuts and bolts. Which I see as neither a good or bad thing.
Jeff Bezos wants to be closer to the centers of power, because that’s what he wants now: power. Expect him to run for President sometime in the future. He’s got his own propaganda rag (WaPo), he’s got a house in Washington, D.C.; he intends to plant his flag on the Moon and in the White House. No billionaire megalomaniac is complete without a Presidency under his belt, especially one who can address the nation from his own mansion at the center of a crater on the moon. Trump has Mar-a-Lago, Bezos will have Luna-Lago.