Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion fund to tackle climate change

Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,’ says Bezos, whose net worth is estimated to be around $130 billion

His company is often criticized for its environmental record, but Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and the world’s richest man, said he was committing $10 billion to a new fund to tackle climate change. In a post to his 1.4 million followers on Instagram on Monday, the e-commerce tycoon said the Bezos Earth Fund would “fund scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world.”

“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,” said Bezos, whose net worth is estimated to be around $130 billion. Hundreds of Amazon employees last month signed a blog criticizing the online retail giant’s climate policies and demanding it do more to tackle climate change. Amazon has been accused of creating vast amounts of waste from the packaging it uses for doorstep deliveries, as well as for the greenhouse gas emissions from huge fleets of vehicles.

The company, which in December said its workforce had hit 750,000, has also been denounced over its carbon footprint because of the high energy consumption of its server farms for its lucrative cloud computing activities. “I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share,” Bezos said in his announcement on Monday…

Amazon founder Bezos’s phone ‘hacked by Saudi crown prince’ in 2018: Report

According to The Guardian, a digital forensic analysis revealed that the encrypted message from the number used by Mohammed bin Salman included a malicious file that infiltrated his phone

Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos’s mobile phone was hacked after receiving a message from the Saudi Arabian crown prince, The Guardian newspaper reported.

According to the British daily, a digital forensic analysis revealed that the encrypted message from the number used by Mohammed bin Salman included a malicious file that infiltrated his phone. The analysis also found that the intrusion could have been triggered by an infected video file sent from the account of of the Saudi prince.

While the details of the data taken from the is unclear, the revelation of the security breach comes almost a year after Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie announced that they would be separating after 25 years of marriage. After the divorce was finalised, Bezos, in a blog post, accused National Enquirer – a US tabloid – of threatening to publish embarrassing text messages and photos unless he publicly affirmed that there was no political motivation or outside force behind the tabloid’s coverage.

The National Enquirer had earlier disclosed an extramarital affair between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, a former television anchor, in a series of reports that relied, in part, on intimate text messages sent by Bezos. However, Gavin de Becker, a security consultant for Bezos, told The Guardian that he believed the Saudi Arabian government had accessed Bezos’s phone before the Enquirer exposed the affair…

MacKenzie Bezos to be world’s 4th-richest woman after divorcing Amazon CEO

She’ll receive a 4 percent Amazon stake, currently worth about $36 billion, as part of the settlement

Companies News: MacKenzie Bezos is set to become the world’s fourth-richest woman after her divorce from Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos is finalized. She’ll receive a 4 percent Amazon stake, currently worth about $36 billion, as part of the settlement, according to a filing Thursday from the Seattle-based company. The divorce is expected to be completed in about 90 days.

Her stake in Amazon ranks her behind the $54 billion fortune of L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the $44 billion held by Alice Walton and the $37 billion net worth of Jacqueline Badger Mars, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Jeff Bezos, 55, will continue to exercise sole voting authority over the shares, according to the filing. He will probably remain the world’s richest person, with a 12 percent Amazon stake that’s currently valued at $107 billion. He will retain other assets, including the Washington Post and space-exploration company Blue Origin, which adds $4 billion to his fortune, according to the index.

“Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75 percent of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my shares,” MacKenzie Bezos, 48, said in a tweet. Jeff Bezos said in a tweet that he was “grateful to all my friends and family for reaching out with encouragement and love. It means more than you know. MacKenzie most of all.”

Amazon now has customers in 100% serviceable pin-codes in India: Jeff Bezos

If things fall in place, then a deal with a major offline retailer might happen by the end of this year, according to a source

 

Amazon.in might be the most visited shopping site in India, but for Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of the technology giant, it is still Day 1 in what may be the second-most important market for the firm outside the US.

Bezos, in a letter to customers, said that Amazon now has customers in 100 per cent serviceable pin-codes in the country and is shipping packages from more than 50 fulfillment locations in 13 states.

From talking about how Alexa plays devotional songs in local Indian languages to Amazon India working closely with communities in rural areas, Bezos said that the online marketplace has now become part of the country's culture and has adapted all its services and offerings accordingly.

Stressing that Amazon India has captured the top spot for the last two years, Bezos pointed out that amazon.in is the most visited site in the country.

Amazon, which has completed five years in India, has managed to reach the top spot while taking on local favourites Snapdeal and Flipkart. Bezos, in a letter to customers, said that Amazon now has customers in 100 per cent serviceable pin-codes in the country and is shipping packages from more than 50 fulfillment locations in 13 states.

Also Read : In Second Most Important Market, It Is Still Day 1 For Amazon In India

“We’re five years into our journey, but as we say at Amazon, its Day 1, and I am energised and humbled by the opportunities ahead. Amazon.in is India ki apni dukaan,” he said in the letter.

Bezos also said that the company is working with ‘tens of thousands’ of third-party developers to increase the capabilities of its voice assistant 'Alexa'.

In the past five years, Amazon has grown from just one seller to 300,000. During the last one year itself, amazon.in expanded its network of third-party affiliates and service providers to ensure that sellers from non-metros and smaller towns get easy access and the required support to start and manage their online businesses, he added.

According to industry analysts, Amazon has pumped more than $3 billion into its Indian operations. One of its India units, Amazon Seller Services, alone has received over $1.28 billion during the financial year 2017-18 from the US parent, as per documents filed with India's corporate affairs ministry.

Bezos had committed investments of $5 billion for the Indian market. However, industry insiders believe that the number is going to increase significantly over the next few months with Walmart planning to expand Flipkart's operations. Investments have also been made in other Amazon entities in India, including Amazon Pay and its wholesale business.

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