Comment extortion (Score 2, Insightful) 87
I guess if most sellers set their prices based on how rich the buyer is, most buyers would rather buy anonymously. This is the best explanation of Bezos' actions that I can figure.
Not just that, but if it becomes well-known that a rich buyer, especially if it's a large company, is making a land grab, a few property owners could basically extort the buyer for more cash. That is, the current owner could say to the buyer, "I know you're trying to buy up all this land for some important reason, and I know you can't do anything until you get my land, so start adding zeros to that check until I say stop." I believe the same sort of thing happened in the early days of the US railroad system.
Not just that, but if it becomes well-known that a rich buyer, especially if it's a large company, is making a land grab, a few property owners could basically extort the buyer for more cash. That is, the current owner could say to the buyer, "I know you're trying to buy up all this land for some important reason, and I know you can't do anything until you get my land, so start adding zeros to that check until I say stop." I believe the same sort of thing happened in the early days of the US railroad system.
