AUG 6- Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos announced on Monday that he has agreed to buy the newspapers owned by The Washington Post Co for $250 million. Here are some notable events in the history of the company since the founding of its flagship daily in 1877:
1933 – Financier and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Eugene Meyer buys the Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction. His daughter, Katharine Graham, would go on to lead the company through its coverage of the Watergate scandal.
1946 – Philip L. Graham, who had married Katharine in 1940, takes over the company, which incorporates as the Washington Post Co the following year.
1961 – Purchase of Newsweek magazine.
1963 – Philip L. Graham commits suicide with a shotgun; Katharine Graham becomes president of the Washington Post Co.
1971 – Katharine Graham takes the Washington Post Co public with the sale of Class B stock at a price of $26 per share.
1972 – The Washington Post publishes the first article concerning a break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s office at the Watergate complex. Subsequent coverage by reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that detail a connection to the White House is instrumental in President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
1973 – Warren Buffett makes his first purchase of Washington Post stock. The company becomes a permanent holding of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
1980 – The Washington Post publishes Janet Cooke’s story on an 8-year-old heroin abuser that goes on to win the Pulitzer Prize. The award is later stripped after it becomes clear that the subject of the story did not exist.
1984 – The company purchases Stanley H Kaplan Education Centers Limited for $45 million.
1986 – Company purchases cable systems serving 350,000 subscribers from Capital Cities/ABC for $350 million, making it the 20th-largest U.S. cable company.
2008 – Katharine Weymouth, Katharine Graham’s granddaughter, takes over as publisher of the Washington Post.
2010 – The company sells Newsweek magazine to Sidney Harman for $1.
2013 – Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos agrees to buy the Washington Post for $250 million in cash.
INDIA TODAY
