Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos' divorce from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Bezos, was finalized by a Seattle-area judge on Friday, paving the way for her to receive $38.3 billion worth of Amazon stock, Bloomberg reported.
In April, Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer, said in a filing that 4 percent of its outstanding stock or 19.7 million shares would be registered in MacKenzie Bezos' name after court approval of the divorce.
The couple announced their plan to divorce in a joint Twitter statement in January, causing some to worry that Jeff Bezos could wind up with reduced Amazon voting power or that he or MacKenzie would liquidate large position.
He retains a 12-percent stake worth $114.8 billion and remains the world's richest person, Bloomberg said. MacKenzie Bezos has said she would give him voting control of her shares.
MacKenzie in May pledged to give half her fortune to charity to join the "Giving Pledge," a campaign announced by billionaire Warren Buffett and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates in 2010.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie, finalized the biggest divorce settlement in history on Thursday, leaving him with 75 percent of their stock in the tech giant and giving her nearly $36 billion in shares.
MacKenzie Bezos said she would give all of her stake in The Washington Post and the space exploration firm Blue Origin to her ex-husband -- the world's richest man -- as well as voting control of her remaining Amazon stock.
Jeff Bezos, 55, and MacKenzie, 48, a novelist, married in 1993 and have four children. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in their Seattle garage in 1994 and turned it into a colossus that dominates online retail.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Amazon, which has a market capitalization of some $890 billion, said MacKenzie Bezos will control four percent of the company's outstanding common stock.
At Amazon's current share price that would be worth some $35.6 billion.
According to Forbes magazine, the divorce settlement makes MacKenzie Bezos the third wealthiest woman in the world after L'Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart's Alice Walton.
Jeff Bezos, who now owns 12 percent of Amazon, remains the world's richest man and the largest shareholder in the company with an estimated fortune of $110 billion, Forbes said, ahead of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett.
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos announced their separation in January and posted Twitter messages on Thursday revealing the divorce settlement.
"Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support from each other and everyone who reached out to us in kindness," MacKenzie Bezos wrote.
"Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75% of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my shares to support his continued contributions with the teams of these incredible companies," MacKenzie Bezos said.
"Excited about my own plans. Grateful for the past as I look forward to what comes next," she said.
- 'Partner, ally, and mother' -
Jeff Bezos, in a Twitter message of his own, said his now ex-wife has been "an extraordinary partner, ally, and mother."
"She is resourceful and brilliant and loving, and as our futures unroll, I know I'll always be learning from her," he said.
"I'm grateful for her support and for her kindness in this process and am very much looking forward to our new relationship as friends and co-parents," Bezos added.
Bezos has largely kept his personal life private during his years steering Amazon.
But it was thrust into the spotlight with the announcement in January that he and his wife were divorcing after 25 years of marriage and the revelation by the National Enquirer that he had been having an affair with a former news anchor, Lauren Sanchez.
When the National Enquirer, controlled by President Donald Trump's ally David Pecker, threatened to release lurid, intimate pictures of Bezos and Sanchez, Bezos fought back by releasing the details of his exchanges publicly.
"Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten," Bezos wrote in a blog post.
A lawyer for the National Enquirer denied that the supermarket tabloid had tried to extort and blackmail the Amazon founder.
Trump has been a frequent critic of the Post, which Bezos purchased in 2013, claiming that the newspaper is biased against him and calling it the "Amazon Washington Post."
Amazon shares were down 0.28 percent at $1,815.69 in New York on Thursday shortly before the close of trading.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK -- The announcement by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest man, and his wife that they will divorce has captivated the imagination -- how will they split his giant fortune, estimated at $136 billion?
And what will happen to the Internet retail giant -- will his soon-to-be ex get a significant stake, and how would that affect his control of the company?
The former MacKenzie Tuttle knew the 54-year-old Bezos before fame and wealth came calling.
The couple met in 1992 when he was a hedge fund manager on Wall Street, before he became an entrepreneur who changed the way hundreds of millions of people live. They married less than a year later.
She was by his side for the entire Amazon adventure, from the company's humble beginnings in his Seattle garage in 1994 to its mammoth success today. They have four children -- three sons and an adopted daughter -- aged up to their late teens.
As of Wednesday, when the couple formally announced they would divorce after a long separation, the 48-year-old MacKenzie, a novelist, is likely to become the richest woman in the world.
According to celebrity news outlet TMZ, the Bezoses did not have a prenuptial agreement -- which could mean an even split of assets.
They were married in Florida in September 1993, according to documents seen by AFP. But their last place of residence would be the deciding factor in any divorce proceedings.
The couple has numerous residences: in Seattle, where Amazon is based, but also in Washington DC, Texas and Beverly Hills, California.
'CHERISHED FRIENDS'
According to Randall Kessler, a founding partner at Atlanta family law firm Kessler and Solomiany, the location will not matter so much.
"Some states have community property, some states have equitable division which means fair division, but even in those states, it usually comes out 50-50. That's the starting point," he said.
Bezos, who was once Amazon's primary stakeholder, now owns about 16 percent of the company -- the bulk of his net worth.
At mid-day Thursday, that stake translated to about $130 billion.
Any divorce settlement would include his stock portfolio. If it were split in half, that would leave Bezos -- who still runs the company -- with an 8 percent stake.
So far, that prospect has not frayed Wall Street, with Amazon shares even up slightly on the Nasdaq on Wednesday after the announcement, only to fall back Thursday.
Hedge fund investor Doug Kass announced that he had sold off his shares after the divorce announcement -- which had an upbeat tone, with the pair saying they remained "cherished friends."
Given they appear to be on good terms, they could decide to put their shares into a trust or other legal mechanism in order to maintain the same power among Amazon's shareholders.
MacKenzie could also opt to transfer her voting rights, should she earn half the stake in a settlement, according to Margaret Ryznar, a law professor at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).
'PROTECT THE COMPANY'
"Voting rights may not be that important in this case because Jeff Bezos is currently a minority shareholder anyway," Ryznar says.
"Much of his influence in Amazon comes instead from his position within the company as its founder and CEO."
For Kessler, "if they want to protect the company, they'll find a way to give her an interest in the company that doesn't affect the running of the company."
Of course, the couple may have a post-nuptial deal that will be revealed in the coming months.
They may also end up in an acrimonious divorce, which would surely cloud the prospects of Amazon, both on Wall Street and from a public relations perspective.
The National Enquirer tabloid reported Thursday that Bezos was in a relationship with the wife of powerful Hollywood talent agent Patrick Whitesell, former news anchor and entertainment reporter Lauren Sanchez.
The relationship, launched 8 months ago, was the final nail in the coffin of the troubled Bezos marriage, the tabloid said.
"Clients come to see me all the time and they always say that this is going to be uncontested -- 'We're both reasonable, we both agree that it should be fair'," Kessler says.
"The problem sometimes is that people disagree on what fair is, or on what reasonable is. Right now they agree. I hope they continue to agree, but who knows what they might disagree on."
And any disagreement would be a field day for their attorneys.
"If they disagree, that's where lawyers make money," Kessler said.
When asked about the Bezos divorce on Thursday, President Donald Trump, himself twice divorced, said: "I wish him luck. It's going to be a beauty."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
