Perplexity, a startup going after Google’s dominant position in web search, has won backing from Jeff Bezos and venture capitalists betting that artificial intelligence will upend the way people find information online. Started less than two years ago, Perplexity has fewer than 40 employees and is based out of a San Francisco co-working space. The company’s product, which it calls an answer engine, is used by about 10 million people monthly. Pictured: CEO Aravind Srinivas.
The Amazon founder, who purchased The Washington Post for $250 million in 2013, has taken a more active role in the paper’s operations this year.
Does Jeff Bezos love football more than he loves newspapers? That’s a question getting tossed around the nation’s capital as its NFL franchise hits the block. Chatter is growing that Amazon’s billionaire founder is looking to clear the way for a purchase of the Washington Commanders by selling the Washington Post — with speculation boosted last month by leaked video of publisher Fred Ryan disclosing layoff plans at an unruly town hall meeting. The problem for Bezos reportedly is that the Commanders’ embattled owner, Dan Snyder, is still sore over the storied newspaper’s series of exposes alleging a toxic management culture at the team, where bosses, including Snyder, allegedly enabled sex harassment.
When the tech billionaire bought the Post in 2013, Bezos said he dreamed of reimagining the newspaper as both a media and technology powerhouse.
But the dream of morphing a paper into a tech company has foundered. Earlier this month, the Post folded its standalone ad tech platform, Zeus, into other parts of the company, and its attempt to provide its publishing system as a service to other publishers may have to be spun out of the company.
Top Washington Post executives recently came to owner Jeff Bezos with a proposal. The company had spent the better part of a decade turning an in-house publishing tool into a broader software business, with some success. The Post’s software, known as Arc XP, now services the likes of pro basketball’s Golden State Warriors and energy company BP PLC. But the business, the executives said, had reached a crossroads and the Post needed to explore a spinoff or sale to realize its potential, according to people familiar with the discussions. Bezos gave his blessing to explore those options, they said.
Exclusives
A day after the Washington Commanders announced that owners Daniel and Tanya Snyder are considering selling the team, speculation about a potential buyer was widespread, and at least one prominent name was confirmed as having interest: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
NEW YORK (AP) — Pete Davidson has bowed out of a short ride to space on a Jeff Bezos rocket. The “Saturday Night Live” star is no longer able to […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Pete Davidson is heading to space. The “Saturday Night Live” star is among the six passengers on the next launch of Jeff Bezos’ space travel venture […]
A funny thing happened on the way to Sun Valley this year. Despite predictions that turnout for the annual Allen & Co. conference would be lighter after last year’s COVID-forced cancellation, attendance at the three morning sessions on the first full day of the gathering was strong and included the mega-mogul of the moment, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO on July 5, the tech giant announced on Wednesday morning at its annual shareholder meeting. Bezos will hand the chief executive title off to Andy Jassy, a longtime Amazon executive who runs the company’s multibillion dollar cloud business. Bezos is expected to still be heavily involved with the tech giant, however, as he moves into his new role as executive chairman of Amazon.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has topped Forbes’s annual world’s billionaire list for the fourth consecutive year, Reuters reported. This year’s billionaires are worth a combined $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion last year, according to Forbes. This year’s list has 493 newcomers, including dating app Bumble’s CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. Tesla CEO Elon Musk comes in second on the list, jumping from the 31st spot last year. Rounding out the top five are LVMH CEO Bernard Arnualt, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg.
Amazon said he’ll be replaced in the fall by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon’s cloud business. Bezos will then become the company’s executive chairman.
No, Google, we’re not really in control of our data. And yes, Facebook, you profit from harmful information.
Analysis: heated exchanges raise concern over anticompetitive behavior as chair warns of companies’ “monopoly power.”
Lawmakers investigating Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple made it clear that their allegations of antitrust abuses come with a lengthy paper trail.
Invective flew Wednesday as legislators questioned Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple at a hearing of the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust. For the last year, that panel has probed the business practices of the Silicon Valley giants with an eye to determining if they need to be regulated more heavily, or even broken up.
4 Big Tech CEOs Get Grilled By Congress
The powerful executives sought to defend their companies amid intense grilling by lawmakers on Wednesday. The executives provided bursts of data showing how competitive their markets are, and the value of their innovation and essential services to consumers. But they sometimes struggled to answer pointed questions about their business practices. They also confronted a range of other concerns about alleged political bias, their effect on U.S. democracy and their role in China.
On Wednesday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook of Apple will answer for their companies’ practices before Congress for the first time as a group. Summoned for a House hearing, they’ll raise a hand (remotely) and swear to tell the truth, in the manner of tycoons of Wall Street or the tobacco industry in earlier high-octane televised shamings.
An attorney representing American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker says his client did not engage in extortion or blackmail against Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Speaking on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, attorney Elkan Abramowitz said the primary source for the Enquirer’s investigation into Bezos’ love life was a longtime tipster for the tabloid magazine.
Jeff Bezos Can Sue The Pants Off National Enquirer
A lawsuit could change the way we think about privacy in the digital age. Privacy is not quite dead. For egregious cases, there are remedies lying ready to hand in the civil law of torts, at least for the case that Bezos might want to bring against AMI.
Federal prosecutors are looking into the National Enquirer’s handling of a story about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ extramarital affair to see if the tabloid’s publisher violated a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
Bezos, who is also owner of The Washington Post, detailed his interactions with American Media Inc., or AMI, in an extraordinary blog post Thursday on Medium.com. The billionaire did not say the tabloid was seeking money — instead, he said, the Enquirer wanted him to make a public statement that the tabloid’s coverage was not politically motivated.
Jeff Bezos had the Allen & Co. conference crowd in Sun Valley, Idaho, transfixed on Thursday morning as the Amazon CEO spoke about the evolution of his company, what he looks for in leaders, and his ambitious plan to develop the world of outer space for the betterment of humanity. Several attendees made mention of what one described as a “baller move” by Disney chief Bob Iger to take his breakfast at a prominent front table with Fox’s Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch and Rupert’s wife, Jerry Hall.
Billionaires Are Transforming American Media
The American media landscape, like the rest of the country, is being reshaped by the whims of the ultra-rich
Before Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO and e-commerce visionary, bought The Washington Post in 2013, the Post was losing revenue and its losses were widening, as it struggled to find income to replace its decline in print ads. The Post is now privately owned and doesn’t discuss specific figures, but says revenue and profits are up, as subscribers grow and digital ad revenue increases. Its monthly web traffic has grown 56%, to 78.7 million over the past two years, according to ComScore.
The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press on Tuesday night announced a $1 million donation from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the biggest gift from an individual in the organization’s 46-year history.
NEW YORK (AP) — A rough day on Wall Street for Warren Buffett means Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is now the third richest person in the world. Bloomberg’s billionaire index shows […]
No Tough Questions For Bezos on ’60 Minutes’
If the ’60 Minutes’ segment Sunday night on Amazon had been a drone, you’d have to say it badly missed its target. Rieder argues the news program gave Amazon a prime platform, but no tough questions, especially about the numerous logistical and regulatory issues facing the use of drones.
As local media companies eye the potential of big data for deepening their engagement with audiences and advertisers, they are learning just how messy, expensive, incremental and imperfect the process can be. In the first of a three-part special report on local media and big data, NetNewsCheck looks at the promise and challenges of this fast-changing field.
The Washington Post Co. said Tuesday that it had completed the sale of the newspaper publishing business to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who said in August he was buying it for $250 million.
What does Jeff Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post mean for local media companies? The Amazon.com founder knows how to user the data collected on users to his advantage and create relationships, and with the Post he can show other local papers, TV and radio stations how to use data to their advantage. Media strategist Mark Ramsey: “The relationship business is the problem-solving business. And before you can solve problems you need to know what the problems are, how to solve them, and who needs them solved.”
Amazon’s Bezos Buys The Washington Post
The Washington Post Co. announced Monday afternoon that it has agreed to sell its newspaper publishing businesses for $250 million to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. The sale will end four generations of family ownership at the newspaper. The company will retain its six television stations and the Kaplan educational businesses and will be changing its name in connection with the transaction.
