Jeff Bezos unloaded 12 million shares of Amazon.com Inc. this week, the first time the billionaire has sold the company’s stock since 2021.
The sales took place on Wednesday and Thursday and netted just over $2 billion, according to a filing.
Amazon disclosed on Feb. 2 that Bezos plans to sell as many as 50 million shares of Amazon over the next 12 months, potentially cashing in on a stock surge that’s put him within reach of becoming the world’s richest person. His fortune has climbed $22.6 billion this year to $199.5 billion as of Friday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The Amazon founder has sold over $30 billion in shares since records going back to 2002, including about $20 billion combined in 2020 and 2021. He has primarily been gifting stock, including shares worth roughly $230 million that were given to nonprofit organizations in November.
U.S. business magazine Forbes has recently published the ranking of the world's richest people in January 2024, and it suggests that global entrepreneurs are experiencing a decline in the value of their net worth early this year.
While several billionaires have lost some of their wealth, the ranking has not changed significantly compared to the previous month, December 2023.
Here is a list of the top 10 richest people in the world in January 2024, with a combined fortune of nearly US$1.47 trillion. This figure and the other currency values mentioned in this article are accurate as of January 18, 2024.
1. Elon Musk
The world's richest individual in January 2024 is Elon Musk. He is the CEO of Tesla, the leading electric car manufacturer worldwide. He also has shares in the private space exploration company SpaceX and the social media company X (formerly Twitter).
As of January 18, 2024, Elon Musk's net worth was US$227.8 billion, down about 1.35 percent, or US$3.1 billion, from the previous month.
2. Bernard Arnault and Family,
Bernard Arnault who is the CEO and chairman of the world's largest luxury goods company, Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), saw his net worth drop by US$4.9 billion or 2.73 percent to US$175.1 billion, just like Elon Musk.
LVMH owns approximately 70 renowned fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Moet & Chandon, and Sephora. In January 2021, LVMH acquired jewelry company Tiffany & Co. for US$15.8 billion.
3. Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is a global entrepreneur who once served as the CEO of the world's largest e-commerce company, Amazon. He resigned from his post in 2021. His assets amounted to US$174 billion, down around 0.82 percent or US$1.4 billion
4. Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison is the tycoon behind the software company Oracle. He served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Oracle and then ventured into investments, including a substantial stake in Tesla, where he served on the board of directors from 2018 to 2022. His total wealth was recorded at $134.9 billion, a decrease of $347 m8illion, or 0.26 percent.
5. Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has become the world’s fifth richest person, surpassing Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. He started the social media platform in 2004 at the age of 19. He also owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads under Meta Platforms.
Unlike other global entrepreneurs who experienced a decline in their assets early this year, Mark Zuckerberg recorded a surplus of about 0.24 percent or US$316 million, making his total net worth US$130.2 billion.
6. Bill Gates
Bill Gates, the founder and former CEO of Microsoft, has been among the world's top richest people for 25 years, from 1995 to 2017, with brief exceptions in 2008 and from 2010 to 2013. He also has many investments in various companies. His fortune as of January 18, 2024, was US$120 billion.
7. Warren Buffett
Known as the 'Oracle of Omaha', Warren Buffett is among the greatest investors in history. He runs Berkshire Hathaway, an investment conglomerate with a diverse portfolio, consisting of numerous companies, including insurance provider Geico and battery manufacturer Duracell. His net worth amounted to US$119.2 billion.
8. Larry Page
Larry Page co-founded Google in 1998 and served as CEO from 2011-2015. At present, he is a member of the board of directors of Alphabet, Google's parent company. His total wealth was around US$118.7 billion.
9. Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer was Bill Gates’ classmate at Harvard University. He was also the CEO of Microsoft in 2000-2014. Apart from that, he made investments in various fields including the NBA and the Los Angeles Clippers basketball clubs. Steve Ballmer's net worth reached US$115.4 billion.
10. Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin ranks tenth in the Forbes list of ten richest people in the world this January. He co-founded the popular search engine company Google with Larry Page. In December 2019, he stepped down as President of Alphabet, Google's parent company, but remains a controlling shareholder and a board member. His net worth hit US$113.8 billion.
The Mahal program caters to Jewish youth from foreign countries eager to volunteer for military service and join the IDF as "Tourists." Despite not being Israeli citizens, these young volunteers obtain a designated residence permit through registration on this track.
This initiative also includes children of Israeli parents living abroad, allowing them to enlist even with Israeli citizenship. Many volunteers independently come to Israel for army enlistment, earning recognition as "lone soldiers" during their service. The Mahal program attracts hundreds of youngsters annually, predominantly from the US and France, with around 90% enlisting in combat units.
Following their service, some volunteers return to their countries of origin, while others immigrate to Israel, either alone or with their families. Notably, 50% of volunteers opt to remain in Israel and pursue aliyah.
It's important to credit Julie Orin as the source of this information.
As Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin stated, "They came to us when we needed them most, in those difficult and fateful days of our War of Independence."
Starting January 31, 2024, the United Kingdom will introduce significant changes to its Visitor Visas, allowing additional business activities, according to the updated immigration rules published by the UK government
Under the new guidelines, visitors will be allowed to continue to work for an overseas employer while staying in the UK. Nevertheless, the primary intent of their visit must be tourism, visiting family, or engaging in another non-work-related activity. Also, the remote work conducted during the stay should be directly linked to the visitor's overseas employment.
Key expansions to the Visitor Visa activities include:
Client Work Eligibility: Visitors holding these visas can engage in client work under certain conditions. This includes working in a company with branches both in the UK and abroad, where client work forms a small part of their job overseas and is essential for a project or service by their employer's UK branch. Notably, the project should not be delivered directly to a UK client by the visitor's employer overseas.
Working from the UK: Visitors will be allowed to work from the UK, provided that remote work is not the primary reason for their visit.
Scientists, Researchers, and Academics: Professionals in these fields can conduct research in the UK, with the exception of academics applying for a 12-month visit visa or extending permission from within the country.
Expanded Activities for Lawyers: Lawyers on Visitor Visas can now participate in additional activities in the UK, including giving advice, acting as an expert witness, participating in arbitrations, legal proceedings, and teaching.
Paid Engagements for Speakers: Speakers visiting the UK on a visitor visa will now be eligible to receive payment for their talks.
Merger of Permitted Paid Engagement (PPE) Visitor Route: The PPE Visitor route will be integrated into the Standard Visitor route. Individuals engaged in paid activities will not require a separate visa, but they must plan their activities within 30 days of arrival.
These changes, particularly the allowance for remote work, are expected to enhance business and tourism in the United Kingdom. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt had previously committed to expanding business visitor rules to enable a broader range of permitted activities and paid engagements, with the changes set to take effect in January 2024. Further reforms to business visitor rules are also anticipated in 2024.
Guzman died Sunday morning after decades of covering crime, politics, and the historic evolution of the city over the past 30-plus years. He most recently worked as a senior correspondent for CBS.
He worked at WNEW-TV Channel 5 starting in 1984 before he moved to WNBC in 1992. He then made the move to CBS 2 a few years later where he stayed for about 16 years.
A Bronx High School of Science graduate, he attended the State University of New York at Old Westbury before becoming a founder of the Young Lords, a predominately Puerto Rican revolutionary party based in New York, according to CBS 2.
He also wrote for numerous publications, including the Village Voice, Billboard, Rolling Stone and the New York Daily News.
CBS 2 reporter Tony Aiello said Guzman was the “real deal.”
Pablo Guzmán packed 150 years worth of life into 73,” Aiello wrote on social media. “His reporting pulsed with a vitality earned on the streets of El Barrio. He covered historic events, and with the Young Lords he authored a unique chapter of NYC’s own history. Pablo was the real deal. Rest in peace.”
He leaves behind his wife Debbie, his children Angela and Daniel, and his mother Sally.
Federal Reserve maintained its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday in a range of 5.25%-5.50%,
the highest in 22 years, while leaving the door open for further action as officials work to bring inflation back the central bank's 2% target.
In its statement on Wednesday, the Fed upgraded its assessment of the economy to "strong" in the third quarter from "solid" in September.
The central bank noted job gains have "moderated," after having noted in September that job growth had "slowed" during the previous inter-meeting period.
"Recent indicators suggest that economic activity expanded at a strong pace in the third quarter," the Fed said. "Job gains have moderated since earlier in the year but remain strong, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Inflation remains elevated."
A majority of Fed officials penciled in one more rate hike at the September policy meeting.
Noting the rise in Treasury yields, which have pressured financial markets in recent weeks, the Fed said in its statement, "Tighter financial and credit conditions for households and businesses are likely to weigh on economic activity, hiring, and inflation. The extent of these effects remains uncertain."
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at a lunch hosted by the Economic Club of New York at the Hilton Hotel on Oct. 19 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (Spencer Platt via Getty Images)
Fed officials have said they are proceeding cautiously as the central bank mulls future actions on interest rates and takes more time to digest cooling inflation data and judge whether hotter-than-expected consumer spending and job growth could continue, keeping inflation higher for longer.
Given the resilience in the economy, Powell has warned that persistently above-trend growth or continued strong job growth could put further progress on inflation at risk.
He reiterated those warnings Wednesday.
"Slowing down is giving us a better sense of how much more we need to do if we need to do more," Powell said at his press conference.
New spending data out for September showed consumers are spending more than they are earning. Adjusted for inflation, consumers increased spending in each of the last three months while real disposable income fell over the same period, raising the question of how much longer spending could last at these levels.
Meanwhile, inflation based on the Fed's favored gage — the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index that excludes the cost of food and energy, or so-called "core" PCE — showed prices rose 3.7% over the prior year in September, in line with where officials expected inflation to end the year, offering the prospect inflation could end 2023 below where officials had expected.
"The public does believe that inflation will get back down to 2% over time," Powell said Wednesday at his press conference. "And it will. They’re right. There is no real crack in that armor."
The special counsel's classified documents case against former President Donald Trump faces the possibility of delays that would take the trial deeper into the 2024 election cycle, after a federal judge in Florida indicated Wednesday she might grant Trump's request to alter the pretrial schedule.
File: Judge Aileen Cannon, in 2020. / Credit: US Senate/AP
Judge Aileen Cannon — a Trump appointee to the federal bench — heard arguments on Wednesday from the former president's attorneys and special counsel Jack Smith's team over Trump's attempt to change the litigation schedule in a way that could push the trial date — currently scheduled for May 2024 — until after the 2024 presidential election.
"I'm having a hard time seeing how this schedule could work with such compressed schedules of so many trials in multiple jurisdictions," Cannon said from the bench Wednesday, noting that Trump has another federal case, also brought by Smith, in Washington, D.C., which is set to go to trial in Jan. 2024, as well as other legal deadlines stemming from the state charges he faces.
While Judge Cannon did not say how or when she will rule, she indicated it was possible the trial could be pushed off within a reasonable timeframe to make room in Trump's legal schedule and to ensure his team is able to examine all of the evidence in the case.
Trump's attorney, Todd Blanche, told the court his team would not be ready for the current scheduled trial date because of a "voluminous" amount of evidence, including sensitive government records.
The former president is charged with dozens of counts that involve allegations that he illegally possessed national defense information, charges that were brought after the FBI recovered documents with classified markings from his Mar-a-Lago home last year. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges — which also include accusations that he allegedly conspired to obstruct the probe — as have his two co-defendants charged in the case.
In court papers, Trump's defense team has described the current schedule as a "rush to trial" and asked Cannon to change the schedule, and his co-defendants — aides Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira — took a similar stance. Nauta and De Olivera have both pleaded not guilty in the case.
Cannon questioned whether Trump's lawyers will have enough time to review the evidence in the next six months, pointing to the 1.3 million pages of documents and years' worth of security camera footage prosecutors have provided the defense, as well as over 5,500 pages of classified material that can only be looked at in a secure location.
But Smith's team in court filings and at Wednesday's hearing pushed back, arguing the requested delays are "not a surprise," but an attempt to drag out the proceedings.
"If you look at what has been done by the defense's position, they delay as long as they can," prosecutor Jay Bratt told Cannon, urging her to keep the May 2024 trial date.
In court papers, the special counsel's office said, "[T]he Government has provided the defendants extensive, prompt, and well-organized unclassified discovery, yielding an exhaustive roadmap of proof of the detailed allegations in the superseding indictment. The vast majority of classified discovery is also available to the defendants."
Wednesday's hearing was not the first time the former president has asked a federal judge to wait until after the election to start one of the special counsel's trials. Earlier this year, Trump lobbied Judge Tanya Chutkan to delay the 2020 election-related case against him until April 2026, noting the amount of evidence in the case and the presidential election.
Chutkanultimately ruled 2026 was far too long to wait and ordered the case to begin in March 2024, during the presidential primary campaign. "Mr. Trump will have to make this trial date work … regardless of his schedule," Chutkan said at the time and has since indicated the date will not change.
The former president has pleaded not guilty in both federal cases against him and has denied all wrongdoing.
Bob Knight, who won three national titles as head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers, has died. He was 83. (Rich Clarkson/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
He was brilliant. He was a bully. He coached some of the most perfectly disciplined basketball ever played, and then acted undisciplined in his own life.
He was an American original and a cultural touchstone with oversized impact, in ways good and, yes, sometimes less so.
You could say Bob Knight was a product of his time, but even half a century ago he pushed the edges of proper conduct; attempting, say, to beat down the door to the referee’s dressing room was frowned upon back in the 1970 NIT as well.
Complicated? They don't get much more complicated than Robert Montgomery Knight, one of the greatest coaches of all time. He combined a demanding will and a legendary temper to become as famous for his authoritarian outbursts as decades of dominance highlighted by three national college basketball titles.
Knight died on Wednesday at his home in Bloomington, Indiana after a lengthy illness, his family announced. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer was 83.
You can’t write the history of basketball, perhaps even the history of this country, without mentioning Knight. It’s not merely for his accomplishments, but the way his teams embodied (and then inspired in others) the ideal that teamwork can produce a whole better than its parts.
Knight won 902 games at Army (1965-1971), Indiana (1971-2000) and Texas Tech (2001-08). It was with the Hoosiers that he won those three NCAA men's championships, including coaching the sport’s most recent undefeated team in 1976.
He was among the last of a certain breed, a terrifying tyrant seemingly incapable of interacting with the outside world yet also a skilled, masterful teacher and loyal supporter for all who managed to survive playing for him.
He was nicknamed the General for how he carried himself and his coaching roots at West Point. In truth he was more an unforgiving drill sergeant.
Knight was a volcano always ready to erupt, part of what made him a-larger-than-life, much-watch sideline star during some of college hoops' most glorious eras. He was a colorful storyteller with a caustic wit and, if he wished, an abundance of charm. He was, if nothing else, incredibly entertaining.
There was the right way to do things (namely his way). The game would be played with discipline, fundamentals, toughness, smarts, preparation, respect and always featuring man-to-man defense. Everything else was just a distraction, or someone getting in the way. He cared little for criticism.
He once stuffed a heckling LSU fan into a garbage can.
He coveted the chance to do the same to most referees and reporters because if there was one thing that the generally certain Knight was never truly settled on, it’s which profession was more incompetent.
“All of us learn to write in the second grade,” he said of the media. “Most of us go on to greater things.”
At the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico he was charged with striking a police officer, but when extradition efforts failed, the charges were dropped. You’d think that might disqualify him from international coaching, but USA Basketball so coveted his talent, it made him the 1984 Olympic head coach. He went on to lead the last all-college team to gold.
He was equal parts ability and outrage, to the point where it all seemed to blend together. It could be anything.
He once put a Purdue hat on a donkey — or an ass — and led it onto the set of his television program to mock the school’s athletic director. When Kentucky head coach Joe B. Hall took understandable exception to Knight slapping him on the back of his head during a sideline skirmish, an annoyed Knight noted “if it was meant to be malicious, I’d have blasted the mother****** into the seats.”
Bob Knight's most infamous tirade came when he threw a chair across the court in a 1985 game against Purdue. (Getty Images)
If it wasn’t one thing, it was the next. Knight wound up playing into his reputation, appearing in movies and commercials, maybe most perfectly in 2003’s “Anger Management.” He later wrote an inspirational book titled “The Power of Negative Thinking.”
That controversies would flare up became the expectation, not the exception. One time he got into a fight at a Lubbock salad bar and some of his old friends were actually heartened that he was at least eating healthy.
His antics shouldn’t overshadow his accomplishments. He was, for a stretch, the winningest coach in NCAA history, yet through his lengthy career he had just a single player who would go on to be an NBA All-Star — Isiah Thomas, who played two seasons for Knight at IU. Nothing defines his greatness better.
With Knight, winning was a byproduct of a team exceeding its individual talent, a collection of good to very good players giving up individual glory for group success. His guys, he proudly said, played for the name on the front of the jersey. Not that he would allow individual ones to be stitched into the back, of course.
This is what instilled pride in fans and loyalty from players who could make it through the years of being broken down and then built back up.
Everything was built on being smarter, more efficient and less mistake prone than the opponent. He made practice harder than the games. He didn’t mind his players hating him because it often bonded them.
He believed in teaching kids and teams how to play, not just which play to run. During games he often sat simply on the bench, observing, rather than pointing and screaming at everyone over every last screen or cut. He micromanaged, yet he didn’t.
“You don't play against opponents,” he often preached. “You play against the game of basketball.”
He was famous for treating everyone the same, from the star to the bench warmer. This was not just true in discipline or expectations of the best player, but as a way to lift up the last man so everyone was of importance.
Even student managers would be employed during practice — often to miss shots for rebounding drills. It’s no coincidence that even Knight's managers became coaches in their own right, including Lawrence Frank in the NBA and Dusty May, who just took Florida Atlantic to the Final Four. They join an astounding coaching tree that includes Mike Krzyzewski, Chris Beard and current IU head coach Mike Woodson.
He often had an open-door policy for high school coaches to come watch practice. It wasn’t uncommon for dozens, from across the country, to sit quietly in the bleachers and take notes. He held a clinic in San Antonio once and 2,000 coaches showed up.
There was value to what Knight was trying to accomplish. For all the controversies, there was a core principle to the pursuit that mattered.
Trust the system. Work the process. Stick together.
This is what nearly every organization aspires to achieve and why Knight, at his peak, was one of the country’s most in-demand corporate speakers.
His outside income was one reason he didn’t annually hold up IU for raises and extensions even though he was paid below market rate. One time at Texas Tech, unsatisfied with a 16-11 season, he returned his entire $250,000 salary. Through the years he donated hundreds of thousands to libraries.
Former Indiana coach Bob Knight and former player Isiah Thomas wave to the crowd during a game at Assembly Hall on Feb. 8, 2020. (Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
His program’s graduation rate was often 100 percent. He could be harsh and cruel with his players, but many who made it through swear by him with unmatched admiration. He was aggressive in his support, famous for calling, say, some stunned hiring manager if one of his guys was up for a job.
Wait, this is the real Bob Knight?
And while he openly mocked the NCAA, he held its rule book sacred. You could say a lot of things about Bob Knight, but never that he cheated. He considered those who did to be weak and fraudulent. If anything he took it to anticompetitive levels — at Tech, for example, he dismantled a (NCAA legal) hostess system where female students gave recruits campus tours because he didn’t like what it suggested.
He often told his assistants that the fun of the job wasn’t in cheating to get recruits, it was beating the teams that cheated to get recruits.
He was the most overly serious coach in the game, yet he preferred casual sweaters to suits, wasn’t adverse to going grouse hunting on gamedays and missed stretches of the recruiting season fishing in Montana. He was obsessed with winning until he wasn’t. Again, it’s complicated.
Mostly it was about building a team, building a culture, building players into something more than they never dreamed possible. He wasn’t for everyone. He wasn’t for many, actually. He never tried to be. He was just himself, a singular force, a true one of one.
In the end he was an uncompromising legend who blew through college basketball and American society, offering lessons on what to do and what not, winning games, changing lives and creating mayhem in college athletics like no one before or since or most likely ever will again.
"Friends" star Matthew Perry's official cause of death remained unknown Sunday pending an investigation by the coroner, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
There were no obvious signs of trauma, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson confirmed to CBS Los Angeles station KCAL News.
The actor was found unresponsive in his jacuzzi on Saturday, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene by the Los Angeles City Fire Department. Perry was 54.
"Due to the celebrity status of Mr. Perry, Detectives from Robbery Homicide Division responded to the scene and conducted a preliminary investigation," a police spokesperson said in a statement.
Perry rose to fame with his iconic role as Chandler Bing on "Friends," which ran for 10 seasons. The role earned him a Emmy nomination in 2002 for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series.
"We are devastated by the passing of our dear friend Matthew Perry," Warner Bros. Television Group, which produced "Friends," told CBS News in a statement. "Matthew was an incredibly gifted actor and an indelible part of the Warner Bros. Television Group family. The impact of his comedic genius was felt around the world, and his legacy will live on in the hearts of so many. This is a heartbreaking day, and we send our love to his family, his loved ones, and all of his devoted fans."
Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Matt Le Blanc as Joey Tribbiani, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay / Credit: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Perry also starred in television series and films like "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "Growing Pains," "Ally McBeal," "17 Again," "The Whole Nine Yards," "The West Wing" and a 2015 reboot of "The Odd Couple."
He received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his role in "The Ron Clark Story" miniseries in 2007.
Perry opened up about his substance abuse struggles in "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing," a memoir released last year. He repeatedly went to rehab for drug and alcohol abuse.
"I think that people don't understand that it's a disease," he told CBS News in 2015 about the misconceptions surrounding addiction. "It was declared a disease in 1955 by the American Medical Association. And even people who are in trouble with this thing don't kind of realize that they are suffering from a disease. So they sort of blame themselves. So it's important to get it out there, and not be a secret, so you can get the help that you need."
Tributes poured in for Perry after his death, with friends and fans memorializing the actor and his career. Members of the "Friends" community, including the creators of the show and recurring guest stars, remembered Perry for his talent and the joy he brought to others.
— Jeff Nguyen, Dean Fioresi and Faris Tanyos contributed to this report.
