Wednesday 12 February 2020

Jeff Bezos’ record $4.1 billion sale ends years of restraint

LONDON: Jeff Bezos’ stake in Amazon.com barely budged over the past decade. That’s started to change. Bezos sold 2 million shares, worth $4.1 billion, as part of a pre-arranged trading plan between Jan. 31and Feb. 6, according to regulatory filings. That’s the largest seven-day selldown by any executive tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which began in 2012.

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum sold $4 billion of Facebook shares in 2016, but that took months. Laurene Powell Jobs divested more than $6 billion of Walt Disney shares in 2016, though it wasn’t part of a trading plan. For Bezos, it’s a sharp reversal from years of relative restraint even as the value of his Amazon stake eclipsed 12 figures in 2017. His increased pace of sales this year might be a result of his 2019 split from MacKenzie Bezos. The pair divorced in the state of Washington, where Amazon is based and the couple lived.

It’s a community property state, meaning all assets and debt acquired during a marriage “will be divided equitably by the court if the couple cannot negotiate an agreement,” according to the website of McKinley Irvin, a family London: Jeff Bezos’ stake in Amazon.com barely budged over the past decade. That’s started to change. Bezos sold 2 million shares, worth $4.1 billion, as part of a pre-arranged trading plan between Jan. 31and Feb. 6, according to regulatory filings. That’s the largest seven-day selldown by any executive tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which began in 2012. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum sold $4 billion of Facebook shares in 2016, but that took months. Laurene Powell Jobs divested more than $6 billion of Walt Disney shares in 2016, though it wasn’t part of a trading plan. For Bezos, it’s a sharp reversal from years of relative restraint even as the value of his Amazon stake eclipsed 12 figures in 2017.

His increased pace of sales this year might be a result of his 2019 split from MacKenzie Bezos. The pair divorced in the state of Washington, where Amazon is based and the couple lived. law firm in the region. The terms of their divorce show that Jeff Bezos retained 75% of the couple’s stake in Amazon as well as interests in the Washington Post newspaper and rocket company Blue Origin.

The pair may have agreed to a cash payment in return for such an uneven split, according to divorce lawyers. “It’s possible the agreement provided for some cash transfer,” said Peter Walzer, founding partner of law firm Walzer Melcher.

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