Jeff Bezos and his wife Mackenzie Bezos have been married for 25 years. However, the two announced their impending divorce early Wednesday, but did not provide a reason for the divorce. If the world's richest man divorces, his wife will share half of her wealth, surpass Ma Huateng and become the richest woman in the world.
In a statement on Bezos' twitter page, the two said: 'we have decided to divorce and continue to live together as friends. Even if we knew that we would break up 25 years later, we would still make the original choice. '
Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon (1659.42, 2.84, 0.17%) in 1994. Now, he is estimated to be the richest man in the world with a wealth of 136.2 billion US dollars. It is not clear what impact divorce will have on their net worth and whether it will affect their Amazon stake. Bezos, 54, owns about 16% of the company, which accounts for more than 95% of his personal wealth. Bezos is also the owner of the Washington Post and Rocket Company Blue origin.
The couple live mainly in Washington state. The state requires divorced couples to divide 'community property' equally, including all income generated during marriage. David Starks, a partner at McKinley Irvin, a Seattle law firm, said: 'although it's not 100% certain, it's likely that all of Jeff Bezos's earnings at Amazon are joint property. 'of course, stark added, it's not uncommon to choose to treat your assets differently through prenuptial or post marital agreements.'. '
Virginia ONU, a lawyer in Washington, points out: 'giving a spouse that part of their common property doesn't necessarily mean giving it to the other party. 'that is to say, Jeff & middot Bezos does not need to sell or transfer Amazon shares, but can provide capital compensation equal to the fair market value of the shares.
Mackenzie & middot Bezos is 48 years old. If she really gets half of her husband's assets, she could be worth more than $68 billion and become the fifth richest person in the world. Even if the payment is only 1%, the divorce is one of the biggest divorce settlements ever.
The Bezos have four children, both of whom are Princeton alumni, but they didn't know each other until they graduated and worked for D.E. Shaw, an investment firm. At that time, McKenzie Bezos was a member of Jeff Bezos' team. They got married in 1993 and moved to Seattle in 1994. In the same year, Amazon was founded.
Mackenzie and middot Bezos are equally successful. She studied creative writing at Princeton University and was a research assistant to the writer Toni Morrison. Mackenzie Bezos published his first novel, the testing of Luther Albright, in 2005 and won the American Book Award. She also founded the anti bullying group bystander revolution.
Although Amazon Asia was asked to comment, a representative of Amazon did not immediately respond.
As the richest individual in history, Bezos is worth about $137 billion. His ex-wife, McKinsey, is more likely to receive at least $66 billion in assets, according to the Washington State Convention in which he lives. According to Bloomberg real-time wealth ranking, Ma Huateng's personal wealth is about 32.4 billion dollars.
In other words, McKinsey is expected to surpass Ma Huateng and become the richest woman in the world. No wonder there are netizens who love Bezos