Opinion / Why MacKenzie Bezos deserves 50 per cent – not 25 per cent – of billionaire Jeff Bezos’ fortune

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, the e-commerce, cloud computing and artificial intelligence company, who is world’s wealthiest person with a net worth of US$137 billion, and MacKenzie Bezos, his wife of 25 years, have divorced. Apparently, there was no prenuptial agreement. And in the US state of Washington, where the American couple live, assets acquired during a prenup-less marriage are split 50-50. Which jets do Jeff Bezos and other tech billionaires own? Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos finalised their divorce last Friday. MacKenzie has walked away with 25 per cent of the fortune and a net worth of about US$36 billion. Her interests in the newspaper, The Washington Post, and the Blue Origin aerospace company have been handed to her former husband, who will remain the wealthiest person in the world, as well as having voting control over her remaining Amazon shares. Yet if you are married to the world's richest person, who is entirely self-made, do you deserve to get half instead? For MacKenzie Bezos, absolutely. For one simple reason: there would be no Amazon without her. Who joins Jeff Bezos as one of the 7 richest retail billionaires? pic.twitter.com/OJWn3OOLS6 — MacKenzie Bezos (@mackenziebezos) April 4, 2019 MacKenzie Tuttle and Jeff Bezos met in 1992 when they both worked for the US hedge fund D.E. Shaw. MacKenzie graduated from Princeton University and became a research associate at the company where Bezos was a vice-president. Her office was next door to his and three months after they began dating, in 1993, they were married. View this post on Instagram mackenzie bezos #mackenzie #bezos #mackenziebezos A post shared by Mackenzie Bezos (@mackenziebez) on Jan 11, 2019 at 8:16pm PST While at D.E. Shaw, Bezos came up with the idea for Amazon and its e-commerce business. MacKenzie was supportive from the beginning, despite the high probability that his venture would fail (after all, almost all start-ups do). Brad Stone writes in book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon: “At the time, Bezos was newly married, with a comfortable flat on the Upper West Side and a well-paying job. “While MacKenzie said she would be supportive if he decided to strike out on his own, the decision was not an easy one.” Has Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost his place as the world’s richest man? View this post on Instagram mackenzie bezos #mackenziebezos #mackenzie #bezos A post shared by Mackenzie Bezos (@mackenziebez) on Jan 10, 2019 at 5:49am PST MacKenzie later told CBS: “I’m not a business-person. So to me, what I’m hearing when he tells me that idea is the passion and the excitement ... And to me, you know, watching your spouse, somebody that you love, have an adventure – what is better than that, and being part of that?” In 1994, at ages 30 and 24, respectively, Jeff and MacKenzie decided to change their stable lives. They drove across the US in search of a new home and headquarters for Amazon. MacKenzie drove while Bezos mapped out a business plan and revenue projections in the passenger seat. After starting in Texas and buying an old car, they wound up in Seattle, in Washington. The pair thought up the name “Amazon” together after almost choosing a different name: Relentless.com. MacKenzie became Amazon’s first accountant, despite being an aspiring novelist. She did a lot of other menial work, as most early start-up employees do, from driving book orders to the post office to handling the company’s bank account and line of credit. She met early Amazon investor John Doerr and partied with the team in Mexico after Amazon’s initial public offering. Yet beyond her early role in the company is the significant role any spouse plays in a partner’s career. Both billionaire investor Warren Buffett and Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, say that the most important career decision you can make is who you marry. pic.twitter.com/oFGWPkK3dB — Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 4, 2019 Sure, there’s the sacrifice one partner might make to allow the other to pursue a demanding career. But that’s not what Buffett meant. Buy Jeff Bezos’ old house – ‘the birthplace of Amazon’ – for US$1.5 million “Marry the right person,” he said in 2009. “I’m serious about that. It will make more difference in your life. It will change your aspirations, all kinds of things.” Would the notion of opening an online bookstore have taken hold of Bezos as forcibly if he hadn’t met MacKenzie? Would he have carried out that vision in the same way, hired the same people and taken the same kinds of risks with a different partner? View this post on Instagram mackenzie bezos #mackenziebezos #mackenzie #bezos A post shared by Mackenzie Bezos (@mackenziebez) on Jan 10, 2019 at 5:26am PST These are impossible questions to answer. But it’s not outrageous to suggest that a person’s motivations, attitudes and goals are influenced by the most important person in their life. Regardless of whether a spouse is listed as a partner on a business masthead, many couples operate as a team focused on a grand, overarching enterprise and work in tandem to achieve common goals. That’s part of the reason many US state laws recognise the concept of community property. Jeff Bezos wins praise for his handling of alleged blackmail attempt Buffett has said that without his first wife, Susie, who died in 2004, he would not have built his fortune. “What happened with me would not have happened without her,” he said. What happened to Jeff Bezos would not have happened without MacKenzie. Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter This article originally appeared on Business Insider .

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} The Amazon CEO – the world’s richest person with a fortune valued at US$137 billion – and his wife finalise their divorce after 25 years of marriage

The Amazon CEO – the world’s richest person with a fortune valued at US$137 billion – and his wife finalise their divorce after 25 years of marriage