Amazon chief’s £125bn divorce
£125bn Amazon boss announces split from his wife after 25 years
THE world’s richest man is set to go through the world’s richest divorce after he and his wife announced the end of their 25-year marriage.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and novelist MacKenzie Bezos revealed the split in a joint statement on Twitter yesterday.
The seemingly-amicable move will prompt the division of Bezos’s £125billion fortune which many argue is regularly boosted by the company’s tax avoidance.
Shares in Amazon, the world’s largest company by market value, dipped slightly following the news before recovering.
The couple said if they knew they would separate after 25 years, they “would do it again”.
Their statement said: “As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends.”
Bezos, who turns 55 on Saturday, founded Amazon as an online bookstore in 1994 from a garage in Seattle with his parents investing almost £200,000.
San Francisco-born MacKenzie, 48, was one of the first employees and an integral part of the company’s early days. Much of his wealth comes from the 16% of Amazon he owns.
Experts say the division of Bezos’ assets will likely be more complicated than most due to the complex nature of his wealth.
His fortune has ballooned in the last six years. In March 2014, he was estimated to be worth £25billion – but as Amazon grew so did his bank balance.
He owns the Washington Post, which has criticised Donald Trump, prompting the President to slam Amazon for not paying enough tax.
Bezos has also invested heavily in Airbnb, Uber and Google. Despite the couple’s split, they will continue to pursue joint ventures. Their statement added: “We feel incredibly lucky to have found each other and deeply grateful for every one of the years we have been married to each other.
“We’ve had such a great life together as a married couple, and we also see wonderful futures ahead, as parents, friends, partners in ventures and projects, and as individuals pursuing ventures and adventures. Though the labels might be different, we remain a family, and we remain cherished friends.”
Both graduated from Princeton but they did not meet at the university. MacKenzie studied English under famed US author Toni Morrison, who said she was “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative writing classes”.
They met in 1992 when Bezos interviewed MacKenzie as vice president of an investment management firm in New
York and she joined as a research assistant. They were engaged three months later and married in 1993, months before he started Amazon. MacKenzie used to drive him to work in a 1996 Honda Accord long after he became a millionaire. The couple have four children, a daughter adopted from China and three sons.
Bezos surpassed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the world’s richest person in October 2017. He became the first person on the Forbes 400 list whose net worth broke $100billion (£78.5billion). More than 90% of his wealth is tied up in Amazon stock – he owns about 80 million shares. The rest is in cash or comes from proceeds from investments, salary and bonuses, according to research firm Wealth-X.
Bezos has tens of millions invested in properties across the States. His main home, a lake house in Medina, Washington, is estimated to be worth £20million. He owns a 27,000 sq ft foot £18million home in affluent Kalorama in Washington DC.
Other properties likely to feature in the divorce include a two-acre £20million property in Beverly Hills and three linked apartments worth £13.5million in Manhattan.
Bezos is giving back some of his wealth through a £1.6billion philanthropic effort called the Day One Fund aimed at helping homeless families and creating non-profit pre-schools.
He has donated over £120million to other causes including Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre.
And he gave £26million for college scholarships for “dreamers” – undocumented migrants brought to the US as children – after Trump attacked them.
Bezos is racing against Elon Musk and Richard Branson to make space travel affordable through his company Blue Origin. His days of travelling in a Honda are long gone and he owns a £51million Gulfstream private jet.
His tweets about luxury holidays from places such as Rome and the Arctic Circle often meet with criticism from staff who accuse Amazon of poor warehouse working conditions.
The company tracks how fast its workers can pick and package items, imposing strictly-timed breaks.
Bezos has also been attacked over the tax Amazon pays in the UK despite making millions. Last year it was reported it paid £1.7million despite profits almost trebling to £72.3million.
The company said it paid all the taxes required by UK law.
After a long period of loving exploration & trial separation, we have decided to divorce JEFF AND MACKENZIE BEZOS IN STATEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
AMAZON boss Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, has split with his wife MacKenzie after 25 years.
Mrs Bezos could be in line for a generous package from Jeff ’s online billions.