Jeff Bezos' ex gives him control of Amazon

Jeff Bezos' ex-wife has given him 75 per cent of their Amazon.com stake in their divorce deal, along with the Washington Post and rocket company Blue Origin.

A file image of Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos in happier times

Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos is giving him 75% of their stake in Amazon.com in their divorce. (AAP)

MacKenzie Bezos, ex-wife of Amazon.com founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos, will give 75 per cent of their stake in the company and all voting rights to the billionaire entrepreneur as part of their divorce settlement.

MacKenzie Bezos will also relinquish all her interests in the Washington Post newspaper and rocket company Blue Origin, she said in a tweet.

The announcement resolves questions about the direction of the world's largest online retailer that have abounded since the couple announced their divorce in January.

Jeff Bezos, widely viewed as a management guru whose long-term focus has been essential to Amazon's meteoric stock rise, will retain company control.

The settlement also suggests that Amazon will be spared the kind of boardroom battle that has plagued other companies whose owners are dealing with family rifts.

"Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75 per cent of our Amazon stock," MacKenzie Bezos said in the tweet on Thursday.

The agreement still leaves MacKenzie Bezos with vast wealth. Her remaining stake in Amazon, valued at roughly $US36 billion ($A51 billion), is worth more than the stock market values of nearly 70 per cent of the components of the S&P 500. That includes companies such as eBay, Allstate and Twitter.

The couple's total stake of $US143 billion had made them the richest in the world.

"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, and looking forward to next phase as co-parents and friends," MacKenzie Bezos wrote.

Jeff Bezos re-tweeted the statement and added in a separate post that he was grateful to MacKenzie "for her support and for her kindness in this process".

The divorce had jolted the once private Bezos couple into the public spotlight.

The day they announced their separation on Twitter, the National Enquirer promised to reveal an affair it claimed had ended their marriage, contrary to the couple's statement that they were on a "long period of loving exploration and trial separation".

The supermarket tabloid proceeded to publish alleged photos and intimate text messages between Bezos and his new partner, former television news anchor Lauren Sanchez.

Bezos then conducted an investigation into how that may have been leaked, culminating in his claim in February that the National Enquirer was attempting to extort him.

The paper's parent said that reporting on an extramarital relationship involving the world's richest was lawful and it would investigate his claims.


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3 min read
Published 5 April 2019 6:38am
Source: AAP


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