Jeff Bezos

Ever wonder what kind of random hobbies you'd take up if you were a billionaire? Well, for Amazon.com  founder and CEO Jeff Bezos -- worth $18.4 billion according to Forbes -- it's about tracking down old rocket engines. Did we mention they're buried in the ocean? The 48-year-old self-made billionaire said Wednesday on his blog, appropriately called Bezos Expeditions , that he was “excited to report” that his team of “undersea pros” had found the engines that helped launch the Apollo 11 mission.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos  and his wife, MacKenzie, have given $2.5 million to fund efforts in the state of Washington to legalize same-sex marriage, effectively doubling the current electoral war chest of proponents. The gift was announced by Washington United for Marriage, the coalition working to pass Referendum 74 in November. It's believed to be the largest individual gift “to secure or protect the freedom to marry,” the group said in a statement released on its website.

On this glorious day before Christmas, I have a message for all you sales tax scofflaws out there: Pay up. This means you. You, who bought your big-screen TV online from Amazon.com instead of at Best Buy and your fleece-lined parka from L.L. Bean instead of Eddie Bauer because Amazon and Bean don't charge you sales tax and the others do. Guess what. You owe it anyway. Skipping out on the sales tax due on online purchases is the single biggest category of "noncompliance" with California sales tax law, according to the state Board of Equalization, accounting for nearly 30% of all unpaid tax. The board estimated lost revenue at $1.1 billion annually.

Amazon.com Inc. in Seattle apologized to buyers who had to wait as long as six weeks to receive the Kindle electronic reading device. Amazon.com sold out of Kindle devices in 5 1/2 hours after they went on sale in November and has been trying to increase manufacturing capacity, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said.

Google has released Keep, a convenient note-taking app for Android smartphone and tablet users. The app, which is available now on Google Play , is designed to make it easy for users to take notes and sync them across their mobile devices and on the Web with Google Drive, the company's service for storing files in the cloud. "With Keep you can quickly jot ideas down when you think of them and even include checklists and photos to keep track of what's important to you," Google said in a blog post Wednesday announcing the app. "Your notes are safely stored in Google Drive and synced to all your devices so you can always have them at hand.

Amazon.com Inc. founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos sold 2.95 million shares in the Internet retailer, under a program of selling the stock at fixed intervals. The shares were worth $38.6 million at Friday's closing price. Including the most recent sales, Bezos has sold less than 5% of his holdings in the company. Bezos last year adopted a plan that commits him to selling company stock at fixed intervals. Amazon stock rose 67 cents to $14.40 on Nasdaq.

Unlike its rivals that are selling their tablets at or near cost, Apple is reportedly selling its iPad mini for a lot more than it costs to make. The material for Apple's new line of 7.9-inch screen tablets adds up to $188, IHS, an analytics firm,  estimates . When you add in a manufacturing expense, the total comes to $198. That's a margin of $141 between the estimated cost and the $329 price tag on the 16 GB iPad mini. That margin increases as storage goes up. Apple sells 32 GB models for $429 and 64 GB models for $529, even though the cost of material only increases slightly, IHS estimates.

How tweet it is. Twitter, the microblogging service that is changing how people communicate, has closed its long-rumored funding round. Spark Capital and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos led the round, the San Francisco company's third, with existing investors Union Square Ventures and Digital Garage participating. Spark Capital's Bijan Sabet, an active Tweeter, joins the board. Twitter, whose motto is "What are you doing?," is not divulging financial details, but word is that it landed $15 million for a valuation of slightly less than $100 million.

Amazon.com Inc., the largest Internet retailer, agreed to pay $27.5 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit that alleges the company misled investors about its finances. The suit accused the company, Chairman Jeff Bezos and two former executives of making false and misleading statements during a three-year span that ended in October 2001, Seattle-based Amazon.com said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.