Chapter 768: Amazon's IPO Creates Billionaires

After a year of preparation, Amazon went public on the Nasdaq and issued 3 million common shares at $18 per share.

At 9:10 a.m. on May 15, Eastern Time, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, his wife and company CFO MacKenzie Bezos, and several representatives of the company's major investors came to Times Square 4, next to New York's Times Square, where the Nasdaq trading center is located.

Although Nasdaq is an electronic stock exchange, it still has a trading center, but it does not have the various hardware facilities commonly found in general stock exchanges. Instead, it has a large studio with high-tech projection screens and reporters from major financial news TV stations in Europe and the United States stationed to report on real-time market conditions.

At 9:20, Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos stepped onto the bell platform amid applause, followed by the company's major investors.

For reporters who have been in the investment circle looking for news for many years, these people's names are also well-known.

John Bogle, founder of Pioneer Investments, Alberg, founder of Madrona Venture Capital Group, and Gu Chengru, president of BlackRock Group

Almost all of Amazon's top ten shareholders are present.

But careful reporters found that according to Amazon's disclosure on Nasdaq, there seems to be one person missing from the top ten shareholders.

A Chinese name: Fang Minghua.

Founder Jeff Bezos became the largest shareholder of Amazon with 42% of the shares, and Fang Minghua ranked second with 30% of the shares, far higher than the other investors.

In the shareholder's prospectus, this man named Fang Minghua disclosed very little information, only saying that he is a Chinese citizen, and no other explanation.

So he was called a "mysterious oriental investor" by reporters.

I wanted to see him at today's listing "ringing the bell" ceremony, but I didn't expect that this mysterious man still didn't show up.

It was almost half past nine, and Jeff Bezos started the "ringing the bell" - in fact, Nasdaq didn't have a hammer at all, only a button on the screen - and it was a touch screen.

Bezos just pressed the button,

Ring the bell!

The colorful stripes floated down, followed by a cheer. At this time, the Nasdaq stock market opened, and everyone stared at the electronic screen nervously.

Soon, the name of Nasdaq and the stock code, AMZN, appeared: $19! Slightly higher than the listing price of $18.

Warm applause broke out on the stage and off the stage.

This price is not very eye-catching among the many listed technology stocks. Even so, the bald man in front of him is worth 170 million according to the number of shares he holds!

The Chinese man who ranks second in shares is also worth 136 million.

Two more billionaires were born, and one of them is still in China!

Fang Minghua knew the news a day later, and it was Li Li who called him to tell him.

Li Li has been very busy recently, mainly for work. She participated in an international comparative literature academic seminar held in New York, rushed back to San Francisco to attend classes, and was also responsible for the work of the translation team.

Although the work of Ashley Press has been handed over to Demi, she is still in charge of the translation team mainly composed of professors from San Francisco State University.

The main work is to translate the literary works of some famous Chinese writers, which are now published by Ashley Press, but the translation work falls on the team she is responsible for.

At the same time, she has to go home and take care of the cute baby at home.

This afternoon, Li Li, Howard Goldblatt and his wife and two other professors discussed the translation of Wang Xiaobo's "The Bronze Age", "The Golden Age" and "The Silver Age" at school - Fang Minghua had just sent the electronic version from China not long ago.

After the discussion, Li Li hurriedly drove back home, and the first thing she did was to hug her lovely daughter.

"Sister Zhang, where is Xinxin? Where is my mother?" Li Li did not find her mother and daughter on the lawn outside or in the living room on the first floor, so she hurriedly asked the nanny.

"Mrs. Zhou is upstairs with Xinxin." The nanny said.

Li Li hurriedly went upstairs and pushed open her mother's bedroom door.

No one!

She pushed open her bedroom door again,

Still no one!

She was a little anxious. When she pushed open the door of the study, she found that her mother was concentrating on the computer, and her daughter was lying in the stroller next to her, chewing her feet for fun.

"Mom, are you surfing the Internet?" Li Li asked, picked up her daughter, and found that her daughter's diaper was soaked, and it seemed that she hadn't changed it for a long time.

"Mom, why don't you change Xinxin's diaper? Look, it's soaked."

Li Li's tone was full of complaints, and she quickly took out a brand new diaper from the next bedroom to change it for her daughter.

Zhou Xuemei seemed to wake up, turned her head and stared at her daughter in shock.

"What's wrong? Mom? What did you see?" Li Li asked curiously while changing her daughter's diaper.

"The company called Amazon that you and Minghua invested in went public today." Zhou Xuemei said.

"Yes, it was listed today. How is the stock performance?"

"The closing price is $23.5."

"It didn't increase much. I remember the listing price was $18, and it only increased by $5.5." Li Li said.

"But, you said Minghua owns 5.8 million shares of this company, which is 136 million US dollars." Zhou Xuemei murmured.

"Well, that's that much, right?" Li Li said, picking up her daughter and kissing her on the cheek.

"Oh my God. 136 million, equivalent to nearly 1.1 billion RMB!" Zhou Xuemei's voice suddenly rose: "And Lili, didn't you say that you also invested 200,000 US dollars at the beginning? Now it is equivalent to 580,000 shares, which is 13.6 million US dollars!"

Zhou Xuemei became excited. She looked at Li Li who was playing with the child and was stunned: "Lili, you don't seem to be excited at all?"

"Excited, why not excited?" Li Li didn't even raise her head and continued to amuse the child in her arms: "Oh, Xinxin, dad is a billionaire, mom is a multi-millionaire baby, are you excited?"

Looking at her daughter's calm appearance, Zhou Xuemei sighed softly.

Alas.

I am increasingly unable to understand my daughter and the world.

"Mom, why are you sighing?" Li Li seemed to know what her mother was thinking. She said, "Actually, it's nothing. I told you a long time ago that Minghua's stock account has earned hundreds of millions of yuan, and it's still increasing. There are also his Ashley Press profits, royalties, etc., so I didn't feel anything when I heard you say this today."

"Does Tangtang know?"

"Of course I know. My cousin is the housekeeper and is much better at accounting than me. Yes, I want to tell Minghua and my cousin about this."

Zhou Xuemei wanted to remind her, but she took back the words when they were on her lips.

My daughter has been very simple since she was a child, and she is still like this now.