‘Grateful and happy’: MacKenzie Bezos keeps US$36 billion in world’s biggest divorce deal, after ceding Amazon control to husband Jeff Bezos
- MacKenzie Bezos is surrendering three-quarters of the couple’s Amazon shares, but retains a 4 per cent holding that makes her the world’s fourth-richest woman
- All voting control on the shares has been handed to Jeff Bezos
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MacKenzie Bezos, the wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, said Thursday that they had finalised their divorce, and that she would surrender 75 per cent of the couple’s shares in the tech giant.
MacKenzie Bezos also said she would give all of her stake in The Washington Post and the space exploration firm Blue Origin to her soon-to-be-ex-husband – the world’s richest man – as well as voting control of her remaining Amazon shares, in what is easily the world’s biggest divorce deal.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Amazon said that MacKenzie Bezos now controls 4 per cent of the company’s outstanding common stock.
At Amazon’s current share price of US$1,812 a share that would be worth some US$35.6 billion.
“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 on Twitter.
“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.
Jeff Bezos, in a Twitter message of his own, said his soon-to-be ex-wife had been “an extraordinary partner, ally, and mother.”
“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,” he said.
Jeff Bezos was listed as the world’s richest person in a Forbes magazine list published in March, ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
Bezos, 55, held 16 per cent of Amazon shares before the divorce deal. His new 12 per cent holding is still worth about US$108 billion.
Assets including the Post and Blue Origin add about US$4 billion to his fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The divorce is expected to be completed in about 90 days.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
