Exactly- that can be seen as CFO qualifications, a background that I think primed him for Amazon well. Amazon is a CFO-type idea- small margins, obscene volume, financially micromanage the infrastructure.

To call Amazon a bookseller is missing their entire raison d'etre. Bezos wanted to be King of Volume, and how much of their current revenue is books? Can you imagine Barnes and Noble starting BNWS?

As a hedge funder he'd be looking for secure, smaller returns through diversification. Sound anything like Amazon's business plan?

The brilliant part is Amazon doesn't make money directly by selling books, they make money by not paying for books until they are all sold (so publishers are effectively floating them interest free loans for every new title).

A perfect example of finance domain knowledge.