Headline Of The Day

Details.

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Buys Washington Post For $250M In Cash

From the Washington Post itself:

The Washington Post Co. has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos, ending the Graham family’s stewardship of one of America’s leading news organizations after four generations. Bezos, whose entrepreneurship has made him one of the world’s richest men, will pay $250 million in cash for The Post and affiliated publications to the Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses. Seattle-based Amazon will have no role in the purchase; Bezos himself will buy the news organization and become its sole owner when the sale is completed, probably within 60 days. The Post Co. will change to a new, still-undecided name and continue as a publicly traded company without The Post thereafter.

Even the Post seems surprised by this news.

WASHINGTON: Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Donates $2.5M To Marriage Equality

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife have donated $2.5M to help Washington state's marriage equality movement.

With the gift, the couple have doubled the money available to the proponents of Referendum 74, which would legalize same-sex marriage in the state by affirming a law that passed the Legislature this year. Courts or lawmakers have declared gay marriage legal in six other states, but backers of such measures have never succeeded at the ballot box. Proponents of the effort in Washington State called it a game-changing gift that gives them a fighting chance in November. “To get this from a straight, married couple sends a powerful message that marriage is seen as a fundamental question of fairness,” Zach Silk, the campaign manager for Washington United for Marriage, said Thursday in an interview.

The New York Times reports that the donation came about after a former Amazon employee who is a lesbian mom of four directly emailed Bezos.

In the e-mail, Ms. Cast described in detail the pain she endured as a young adult and the difficulties she faced publicly acknowledging her sexuality. At the end, she pointedly asked him to donate between $100,000 and $200,000 to the referendum cause. “Jeff, I suspect you support marriage equality,” she wrote. “I beg you not to sit on the sidelines and hope the vote goes our way. Help us make it so.” She hit “send” and waited. Two days later, on Tuesday, she received a reply while in a car with her family. Recalling that moment, she said she had to read it out loud twice to make sure she had read it right. “Jen,” the e-mail said, “this is right for so many reasons. We’re in for $2.5 million. Jeff & MacKenzie.”

Amazing!

Kindle Fails To Spark

Yesterday Amazon's Jeff Bezos launched Kindle, their new $400 e-reader that he claims will become the iPod of books. Previous e-readers have failed to catch on, but the Kindle, which can hold 200 books, does have some nifty features, including the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines (Time Magazine: $1.99/mo), and newspapers (New York Times: $13.99/mo.) New content is pushed onto the Kindle via a free network called "Whispernet". Once you've subscribed to a source, it automatically appears in your device.

Some have noted the product's name in reference to Ray Bradbury's famous novel about book burning, Fahrenheit 451, but Bezos claims the name is a reference to "rekindling" an interest in reading. Yeah, whatever. While reviews have been generally unkind, citing the device's lousy web browser among other issues, I can sorta see myself using a Kindle, as I am not a book saver - once I read something, I usually give it away shortly after. But with the Kindle's cost and limitations, I'm not that blown away. I wanted an MP3 player the minute they came out. For the Kindle, not so much.