WORLD’S PRICIEST DIVORCE
But Bezos to retain voting control of Amazon stake despite ceding 25pc of shares to wife
AMAZON.COM Inc chief executive officer Jeff Bezos will retain voting control of his entire US$143 billion (RM584 billion) stake in the company under a divorce settlement with his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, who will own 25 per cent of those shares, said the couple on Thursday, removing uncertainty over control of the online retailer.
The world’s richest couple had announced their impending divorce in a joint Twitter statement in January, causing some to worry that Bezos could wind up with less Amazon voting power or that he or MacKenzie would liquidate large positions.
“It takes the issue off the table, with less turbulence than you might have expected,” said an investor, whose company owns several million dollars worth of Amazon shares.
MacKenzie will wind up with a stake in Amazon that is worth roughly US$36 billion.
Her shares represented a four per cent stake in Amazon, according to a regulatory filing by
the company.
The Amazon shares would make her the world’s third-richest woman while Bezos would remain the world’s richest person, according to Forbes.
The couple, who tweeted separately on Thursday, disclosed that under their settlement, MacKenzie would give up her interests in the Washington Post, which Bezos bought in 2013, and the rocket company Blue Origin he founded in 2000.
“Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff,” said MacKenzie in her tweet outlining the agreement, the first and only post from an account created this month.
The two did not provide any further financial details about the settlement.
Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, said in the filing that four per cent of its outstanding shares would be registered in MacKenzie’s name after court approval of the divorce, which was expected to occur in about 90 days.
Bezos, whom Amazon listed in its most recent proxy statement as its single largest shareholder with a 16.3 per cent stake, will keep sole voting authority over the shares unless MacKenzie donates them to a non-profit or sells them in the open market.
Amazon shares closed down 0.1 per cent at US$1,818.86.
The settlement suggests that Amazon will be spared the kind of boardroom battle that has plagued other companies whose owners are dealing with family rifts, even though the divorce had jolted the two into the public spotlight.
Bezos re-tweeted MacKenzie’s statement and added in a separate post that he was grateful “for her support and for her kindness in this process”.
Liat Sadler, a San Francisco matrimonial lawyer, said the settlement should put investors at ease.
“They’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes to make their breakup as amicable as it seems,” she said.