Amazon founder buys Washington Post

 

 

Bezos, whose entrepreneurship has made him one of the world’s richest men, will pay US$250 million in cash for The Post and affiliated publications to The Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses.

In a statement appearing on bbc.co.uk, Bezos said that he understood the Post's "critical role'' in Washington and said its values would not change. The website went on to say that Bezos would become The Post's sole owner when the sale is completed, probably within 60 days. The Post will get a new, still undecided name and continue as a publicly traded company without the newspaper.

The Post's article said that the deal represents a sudden and stunning turn of events for the paper, Washington’s leading newspaper for decades and a powerful force in shaping the nation’s politics and policy. Few people were aware that a sale was in the works for the paper, an institution that has covered presidents and local communities and gained worldwide attention for its stories about the Watergate scandal and, in June, disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance programmes.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/washington-post-to-be-sold-to-jeff-bezos/2013/08/05/ca537c9e-fe0c-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html)