Page 105 - Forbes Magazine-October 31, 2018

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FROM THE VAULT

NEW MEDIA MOGUL: NOVEMBER 5, 2012

AT 35, JACK DORSEY was running
two of the hottest startups in America:
Twitter and Square. In less than three
years, Twitter had gone from 30 mil-
lion monthly active users worldwide to
167 million, creating citizen journalists
of a sort who filed more than 400 mil-
lion tweets a day. Its revenue would top
$300 million in 2012. Square, meanwhile,
would end the year with $203 million
in revenue and would more than double
that the next. Rising valuations for the two
companies gave Dorsey a $1.1 billion for-
tune, enough for him to make The Forbes
400 for the first time.
He already had his eye on something
bigger, though. “I don’t think there has been
any recent revolution of our government or
how we think about running governments,”
he told us. “I would love to see technology
help with that.”
Dorsey probably couldn’t have imagined
just how dramatically Twitter would end up
changing the tenor of American government.
Twitter is the president’s preferred communica-
tion method, of course, and has become one of
the world’s most powerful means of distribut-
ing information. Square is less talked about, but
more successful financially: Although Twitter’s
revenue fell in 2017, Square’s continues to rise,
increasing 30% last year to $2.2 billion. Dorsey is
now worth $6.3 billion.

FAST-FORWARD
To Bezos—and Beyond
2012: Amazon’s decision to
sell the Kindle Fire tablet at a
break-even price was weighing
on the e-retailer’s stock—and
on Jeff Bezos’ fortune, which
was then a mere $23 billion.
2018: That figure is now $160
billion after a breathtaking five-
SIGN OF THE TIMES year run in which Amazon PLUS ÇA CHANGE
Guns Blazing moved into markets such Closing Time
With President Obama in office, firearm as groceries, healthcare, Edward Lampert was
owners rushed to stockpile weapons, fearing brick-and-mortar retail desperately spinning off
he and Congress would introduce tougher and connected-home Sears’ Hometown and Outlet
gun-control laws. That was good for gun devices. stores to generate cash. The
makers like Sturm Ruger and its CEO, Mike situation for the iconic retailer BEN STECHSCHULTE/REDUX;
Fifer (above); Ruger’s sales had more than was bad then—and has only BY ABRAM BROWN
doubled in Obama’s first term, to $406 million. worsened. This year it’s closing
another 46 stores.
38 | FORBES OCTOBER 31, 2018