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Jeff Bezos loses $13B in hours as Amazon shares slump

PAUL ELLIS/POOL PHOTO VIA AP / 2021
                                CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos delivers his message during a session on Action on Forests and Land Use, during the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. Bezos’s net worth fell to $148.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, from a peak this year of more than $210 billion.
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PAUL ELLIS/POOL PHOTO VIA AP / 2021

CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos delivers his message during a session on Action on Forests and Land Use, during the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. Bezos’s net worth fell to $148.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, from a peak this year of more than $210 billion.

Jeff Bezos saw $20.5 billion of his fortune melt away after Amazon.com Inc.’s results left investors disappointed, helping fuel the worst month for technology stocks in years.

>> RELATED: Tech stocks sink again, Nasdaq has worst month since 2008

Shares of the e-commerce company were down 14% today after it reported a quarterly loss and the slowest sales growth since 2001. Bezos’s net worth fell to $148.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, from a peak this year of more than $210 billion.

The world’s 500 richest people lost a total of more than $54 billion Friday amid the broader market rout, according to the Bloomberg index. The benchmark S&P 500 Index fell 3.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index slid 4.5%, closing out its worst month since 2008.

Bezos, 58, the world’s richest person after Elon Musk, is now the third-biggest wealth loser this year, with his fortune dropping nearly $44 billion since Jan. 1.

Amazon is contending with higher labor costs following a hiring binge during the pandemic and a surge in inflation that may hold back sales.

The company posted a net loss of $3.8 billion in the quarter ended March 31, compared with profit of $8.1 billion in the same period last year.

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