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SEC 10-K Report on Amazon.com, Inc.
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University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC)
ACCT 220 Principles of Accounting I
Professor: <Name>
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, SEC 10-K Report on Amazon.com, Inc. 2
Introduction
Amazon.com, Inc. was founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeffrey P. Bezos and it was originally
named “Cadabra, Inc. (as in abracadabra) for a few months, but his lawyer said it sounded too
much like "Cadaver,". So, then he chose “Amazon” from a dictionary after the largest river and a
place that was “exotic and different.” Once it opened for business as an online bookseller in July
of 1995 within a few years it was known as “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore” offering over 2.5
million books. The company went public in May 1997, during this time they also started selling
CDs, videotapes, audiotapes, and a few other miscellaneous items (Amazon.com,Inc., 1997, p.
4). In 1998 Amazon had more than 4.7 million books, music CDs, videos, DVDs, computer
games and other miscellaneous items for sale now (Amazon.com,Inc., 1998, p. 3).
Amazon’s retail company has come along way since the beginning and now battle it out
with competitors like Apple, Walmart, and eBay to name a few. Any company that sells books,
used items, electronics, movies in several types of sources, and all other retail items are in
competition with them around the world.
Amazon is a world recognized retail company, it is the ranked fourth for the World’s Best
Employers, 2021 on Forbes list and ranked second on the Fortune 500 list for retail companies
(Amazon.com, Inc., n.d., Awards and Recognition). Their main geographic area is the United
States. The Chief Executive Officer is Andrew R. Jassy, and the home office is located North
Seattle, Washington (Amazon.com, Inc., 2021, p. 47).
In this project we will analyze Amazon’s financial statements from the Securities and
Exchange Commission, which cover the years from 2019 to 2021 and ratios during these years.