Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 768 Amazon goes public and a billionaire is born

After a year of preparation, Amazon went public on the Nasdaq, issuing 18 million shares of common stock at $300 per share.

At 5:15 a.m. Eastern Time on May 9, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, his wife, the company's CFO MacKenzie Bezos, and several representatives of the company's major investors arrived at Four Times Square next to New York's Times Square, where the Nasdaq trading center is located.

Although NASDAQ is an electronic stock exchange, it still has a trading center, but it does not have the various hardware facilities commonly found in general stock exchanges. Instead, it has a large studio with high-tech projection screens and reporters from major financial news TV stations in Europe and the United States to provide real-time market reports.

At 9:20, Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos stepped onto the bell platform amid applause, followed by the company's major investors.

For journalists who have been hanging around in the investment circle looking for news for years, these people's names are also well-known.

John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Investments, Alberg, founder of Madrona Venture Capital Group, and Doyle, president of BlackRock Group, Gu Chengru
Almost all of Amazon’s top ten major shareholders were present.

But careful reporters found that according to Amazon's disclosure on Nasdaq, there seemed to be one person missing among the top ten shareholders.

A Chinese name: Fang Minghua.

Founder Jeff Bezos is Amazon's largest shareholder with a 42% stake. The second is Fang Minghua, with 30%, far higher than several other investors.

In the shareholder's statement, very little information was disclosed about this man named Fang Minghua, only saying that he was a Chinese citizen, without any other explanation.

So he was called "the mysterious Eastern investor" by reporters.

I had hoped to see him at today's "bell ringing" ceremony for the listing, but unexpectedly, this mysterious man still did not show up.

It was almost half past nine when Jeff Bezos started "ringing the bell" - in fact, Nasdaq didn't have a hammer at all, only a button on the screen - and it was a touch screen.

Bezos just pressed a button.
The bell is ringing!
The colorful stripes floated down, followed by a round of cheers. At this time, the Nasdaq stock market opened, and everyone stared at the electronic screen nervously.

Soon, the name of Nasdaq appeared, along with the stock code, AMZN: $19! Slightly higher than the listing price of $18.

There was warm applause from both the stage and the audience.

This price is not particularly eye-catching among the many listed technology stocks. Even so, the bald man in front of him is worth as much as 1.7 million based on the number of shares he holds!
The Chinese man who ranks second in shares is also worth 1.36 million.

Two more billionaires were born, and one of them is in China!
It was a day later that Fang Minghua learned the news, and it was Li Li who called him to tell him.

Li Li has been very busy recently, mainly with work. She attended an international comparative literature academic seminar held in New York, rushed back to San Francisco to attend classes, and was also responsible for the work of the translation team.

Although the work of Ashley press has been handed over to Demi, she is still in charge of the translation team which is mainly composed of professors from San Francisco State University.

Her main task is to translate literary works by some famous Chinese writers, which are now all published by Ashley Press, but the translation work falls on the team she is in charge of.

At the same time, I have to go home and take care of the lovely baby at home.

This afternoon, Li Li, Howard Goldblatt and his wife, and two other professors discussed the translation of Wang Xiaobo's "The Bronze Age", "The Golden Age" and "The Silver Age" at the school - Fang Minghua had just sent the electronic version from China not long ago.

After the discussion, Li Li drove hurriedly back home, and the first thing she did was to hug her lovely daughter.

"Sister Zhang, where is Xinxin? Where is my mother?" Li Li did not find her mother and daughter on the lawn outside or in the living room on the first floor, so she hurriedly asked the nanny.

"Mrs. Zhou is upstairs with Xinxin." said the nanny.

Li Li hurried up to the second floor and opened her mother's bedroom door. No one was there!
He opened his bedroom door again.

Still no one!

She was a little anxious. When she pushed open the door of the study, she found that her mother was concentrating on looking at the computer, and her daughter was lying in the stroller next to her, chewing her own feet for fun.

"Mom, are you surfing the Internet?" Li Li asked, and picked up her daughter. Only then did she realize that her daughter's diaper was soaked and it seemed that she hadn't changed it for a while.

"Mom, why don't you change Xinxin's diaper? Look, it's soaked."

There was a hint of complaint in Li Li's tone, and she quickly took out a brand new diaper from the bedroom next door to change it for her daughter.

Zhou Xuemei seemed to wake up, turned her head and looked at her daughter in shock.

"What's wrong? Mom? What did you see?" Li Li asked curiously while changing her daughter's diaper.

"The company called Amazon that you and Minghua invested in went public today," Zhou Xuemei said.

"Yes, it's listed today. How is the stock performance?"

“The closing price was $23.5.”

"The increase is not much. I remember the listing price was $18, and it only increased by $5.5," said Li Li.

"But you said Minghua owns 580 million shares of this company, which is 1.36 million US dollars." Zhou Xuemei murmured.

"Well, is that all?" Li Li said as she picked up her daughter and kissed her little face.

"Oh my god. 1.36 million, that's nearly 11 billion RMB!" Zhou Xuemei's voice suddenly rose: "And Lili, didn't you say you also invested 20 US dollars at the beginning? Now it's equivalent to 58 shares, which is million US dollars!"

Zhou Xuemei became excited. She looked at Li Li who was playing with the child and was stunned: "Li Li, you don't seem excited at all?"

"Excited, how can I not be excited?" Li Li didn't even raise her head as she continued to amuse the child in her arms: "Oh, Xinxin, daddy is a billionaire, and mommy is a multimillionaire, baby, are you excited?"

Looking at her daughter's calm expression, Zhou Xuemei sighed softly.

Why.
I am becoming more and more unable to understand my own daughter and this world.

"Mom, why are you sighing?" Li Li seemed to know what her mother was thinking. She said, "It's nothing. I told you a long time ago that Minghua's stock account has earned hundreds of millions of yuan, and it's still increasing. There are also profits and royalties from his Ashley Press, etc. So when I heard you say this today, I didn't feel anything."

"Does Tangtang know?"

"Of course I know. My cousin is the housekeeper and is much better at calculating accounts than I am. Yes, I want to talk to Minghua and my cousin about this matter."

Zhou Xuemei wanted to remind someone, but she took the words back when they came to her lips.

My daughter has been very innocent since she was young, and she is still the same now.

(End of this chapter)