The e-commerce and technology giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has evolved massively since it went public in 1997 as an online used book store. Today, the company is an international conglomerate that operates in multiple industries. Amazon now sells and ships almost any item imaginable and operates large business divisions focused on advertising, cloud computing, healthcare, and grocery shopping.

It's hard to believe that the company has come so far in a little under three decades. Amazon has also turned out to be a great investment for its shareholders over the years. If you had invested $4,000 in Amazon during its IPO and kept it invested, here's how much money you'd have today.

Jeff Bezos, the visionary who launched Amazon in 1994, started the company out of his garage, where he and a few other employees would process online orders and package and ship the books themselves.

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Source Fool.com