After all the press consideration on his separation, Jeff Bezos might search for a calmer 2019. But it doesn’t seem to be the case since he was spotted venturing out with his mistress Lauren Sanchez. In addition to this, with such big number of big buck projects, it doesn’t look like he could cover up for long.
Some people were worried that the Bezos separation might hit Amazon investors as well and the stocks might go down. But in reality, Amazon stocks have gone up in the most recent month and has been rising. Fears of the CEO expecting to auction his very own portion stock, which would affect the business sectors, hasn’t been discovered as of now.
The hydrogen-fueled “New Shepard” rocket flew for 10 minutes above Texas and was carrying NASA microgravity experiments. The latest test flight has been a month late due to technical issues and recent weather restrictions. It has hit a target altitude of 66.4 miles, above the 50-mile-altitude boundary in between the earth’s atmosphere and space.
Manned flights of the New Shepard have been built to carry up to six tourists or researchers and is being expected later by this year. Blue Origin’s head of astronaut strategy and sales Ariane Cornell said: “I would jump on top of that rocket tomorrow itself. We are focused, on testing New Shepard through and through so we are not selling tickets yet. We haven’t selected a price yet, but there might be rumors regarding that. We also haven’t determined when we would start selling tickets.”
The rocket has performed well in all tests, and there has been just one booster problem in the first flight. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo completed a first test flight out of the earth’s atmosphere last month. Both companies have been expected to charge around $200,000 for every flight for “space tourists” when they will happen.
Bezos plowed $500 million into Blue Origin by 2014 and has continued to privately fund most of the project throughout 2017 but hasn’t revealed details. Since April 2017 Bezos has sold about $1 billion in Amazon stock each year which has financed his ambitious space project. By 2013 NASA contracts had generated $25 million in funding. Amazon’s share price has gone up by 0.48% today against a wider Nasdaq which has gone up by 1.59% overall. Last month, Amazon’s stock went up by 20%, which meant it came back up from December its lows.
Confidence is high amongst analysts regarding Amazon stock. CNN polled that out of 48, 42 analysts have given Amazon shares a “buy” rating.
Earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2018 had been expected to reach $5.53. The company’s revenue is being expected to be higher than any of its other quarters of 2018 at $72 billion.
The e-commerce giant also announced today that they would start delivering in Washington using a “sidewalk” robot, which goes by the Amazon Scout.
Both Bezos and Sanchez had to reportedly be present at the New Shepard launch. This presence would be their first official public appearance after the news regarding Bezos divorce and the Sanchez relationship. They are aslo being expected to attend the Oscars together on February 24.
Legal experts said to Business Insider that the Bezos divorce wouldn’t really hurt the shares of Amazon. MacKenzie Bezos might have some restrictions on her shares after the divorce which will prevent a sudden sell-off.
