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Quote of the Day
” We will make bold rather than timid investment decisions where we see a sufficient probability ofgaining market leadership advantages. Some of these investments will pay off, others will not, and wewill have learned another valuable lesson in either case “
Jeff Bezos in his first letter to Amazon Shareholders in 1997.
On this day, Amazon would reach a milestone that Jeff Bezos only dreamed of just 22 year prior when we wrote his first letter to Amazon shareholders.
September 4th – This Day in Stock Market History
September 4th, 1998 – Google is incorporated.
Google’s founders were Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both PhD computer science students at Stanford University.
They began their work on Google in 1996 (which was originally named BackRub).
In 1998, they would be given $100,000 from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems to launch the company. However, the company would grow rapidly and raise millions more by the end of 1999.
Here’s a list of Google’s notable shareholders from its early years:
Early Google investors
Several individuals, institutions and companies stand to profit handsomely if Google debuts on Wall Street, as expected. Here’s a few of Google’s most prominent investors:
— Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (owns a small stake as part of an investment of between $100,001 and $1 million in a venture capital fund that gave money to Google)
— Stanford University (owned an estimated 5 percent of Google when it was founded)
— UC Berkeley (has $36 million stake in two venture capital funds that are invested in Google)
— Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (believed to own up to 40 percent, combined)
— Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems (believed to own around 1 percent)
— Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google’s founders (own up to 40 percent, combined)
— Yahoo (invested $10 million in Google and has warrants to buy 929,764 shares)
— Time Warner (has warrants to buy 1.9 million shares for $22 million)
Source: Chronicle Research
Read more: https://web.archive.org/web/20090919030812/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F2004%2F04%2F29%2FMNGLD6CFND34.DTL#ixzz5yLCcwDVr
Google would have its IPO on August 19th, 2004.
September 4th, 2018 – Amazon’s market cap reaches $1 trillion for the first time.
Amazon’s stock was on a tear from the depths of the great depression. Amazon would finish 2018 with more than $232 billion in sales, up nearly 3x from 2014:
2018 was also a year where Amazon seemed to “turn on” its profits. The company had been notorious for funneling money back into the business instead of recording profits.
At the time, Amazon’s stock was up 134,080% from Amazon’s IPO on May 15th, 1997.
Amazon was not the first company to reach a $1 trillion dollar market cap. Apple Computers was the first company to reach that milestone 1 month prior, on August 2nd, 1998.
Best September 4th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1986 – Up 2.04%, 38.38 points,
Worst September 4th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
2008 – Down 2.99%, 344.65 points.
Read of the Day
In addition to early Amazon shareholder letters, Google’s early letters are also very good. Here is a snippet from Google’s first letter to shareholders after its IPO:
Google has archived all of their “Founders Letters” here.
<– Go To Previous Day: September 3rd, 1929 – The stock market reaches its pre-Great Depression Peak. Would be the last new all-time high for the next 25 years!
Go To Next Day: September 5th, 1929 – The “Babson Break”, the first of many large declines in the stock market to come –>
