After buying out the Graham family–the old owners of The Washington Post–for $250 million, Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos formally took control of The Post on 1 October 2013, but why?
(a) because he wants to revitalize the newspaper industry and modernize how news is reported
(b) because he wants to influence Congress and be taken more seriously by Washington elites
(c) because he is a megalomaniac
Sometimes the simplest, most parsimonious explanations are the best.
Extra Credit: did Bezos pay too much or too little for The Post?
prior probability 
My vote goes with option A. He was able to do amazing things with Amazon, so why not with a newspaper? People are increasingly demanding with the amount of information they want access to, and the speed at which they are able to get it. We’ll see what happens! As far as the price… If he is successful in transforming the newspaper industry, then he paid too little. If the Washington Post fizzles, regardless of his efforts, then he paid too much. It all depends on the end result.
Great point. If anyone can transform the moribund newspaper industry, it would have to be Jeff Bezos, since he has also transformed the retail industry. Also, I like your last point about the price paid. That is, whether the purchase price is too high or too low requires a probabilistic analysis.