This Week In Business History: April 24, 2023
1998: Amazon Completes Its First Acquisitions
On April 27, 1998, Amazon announced it completed not one, not two, but the company’s first three acquisitions. The acquired companies were:
Bookpages - an UK online bookstore
Telebook - Germany’s largest online bookstore
IMDB - the online movie database
Little did we know at the time that these acquisitions would be the start of a massive buying spree that the company would embark on over the next 25 years. The list includes: Whole Foods, MGM, One Medical, Twitch, Ring, Zappos, iRobot, Audible, and literally over a 100 other companies.
2016: S&P Downgrades Exxon Mobil For First Time Since Great Depression
Seven years ago, the rating agency S&P downgraded the great Exxon Mobil from its AAA rating for first time since the Great Depression. The downgrade came about from the rapid drop in oil prices over the two year period leading up to 2016 in which oil reached as low as $30/barrel.
Since the first downgrade, Exxon Mobil has now slipped two more notches to AA- on S&P’s rating scale as the pandemic collapsed oil prices leading the company to issue additional debt.
As of today, only Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson have perfect credit ratings from S&P.
2022: Twitter’s Board Accepts Elon Musk’s Offer
What a year its been since Twitter approved of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter 364 days ago. The stock jumped over 5% after the company announced it had accepted the offer which was contingent on shareholder and regulatory approval.