April 12: Amazon & the dot-com bubble

Amazon was nearly a casualty of the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s.

Source: Vox & The New York Times
Published: April 2017 & February 2000

Amazon & the dot-com bubble

Amazon was nearly a casualty of the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s. On December 6, 1999 Amazon’s stock price was $106.69. By April 2, 2001 the price dropped 92% to $8.37 per share.

Fortunately, Amazon had Joy Covey as the company’s first CFO. In January 1999, Joy led a $1.25 billion convertible bond offering—more than twice the $500 million originally planned. Almost by sheer luck, the company closed the deal selling bonds a month before the market crash of 2000. The funds were used to invest aggressively in areas that allowed Amazon to cut costs.

Editor’s Note: Joy was tragically struck and killed by a delivery van while bicycling in 2013. In Amazon’s 2014 Letter to Shareholders, Jeff Bezos described Joy as “substance over optics. She was a long-term thinker. She had a deep keel. Joy was bold.”

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