As Amazon goes, so does Jeff Bezos' fortune. Overall it was a positive year for the e-commerce giant.
This kept its founder and CEO at the top of the Forbes 2019 list of the world's billionaires for the second year in a row, with a fortune of $ 131 billion. It is an increase of 19 billion compared to the previous year.
Last year, Bezos became the first person to top the Forbes list of billionaires, with a fortune of $ 100 billion or more. Although Amazon shares have fallen from a record $ 2.012 in August, they are still more valuable than they were a year earlier.
The big question is whether he can maintain his vast fortune with the news of his pending divorce. On January 9, he announced via Twitter that he and his wife Mackenzie had decided to divorce after 25 years of marriage. Bezos made it seem friendly, writing that "at the same time we see before us a beautiful future as parents, friends and partners in various endeavors".
But later that day, the National Enquirer magazine revealed that it had discovered a link between Jeff Bezos and former TV presenter Lauren Sanchez, adding that he had photos of the two of them and tweets they had exchanged. Bezos responded February 7 by tweeting a post on the Medium website accusing the publisher of the National Enquirer of publishing two emails — one expressing the threat of Bezos' personal photos with Sanchez and a second listing "Terms of agreement" which included a public, mutually agreed assumption on the part of Bezos, which confirms that he has no knowledge to claim that his divorce was covered by AM (the magazine's parent company) she was politically motivated. "
The American Media, published by the National Enquirer, issued a statement saying that "American Media firmly believes that it has acted within the law in terms of covering Mr. Bezos' divorce", but added that its board of directors was determined to investigate Bezos's allegations. Since then, no further information has been provided by either side on this issue.
The news that Bezos is getting a divorce raises real questions about whether he will retain control of Amazon - he owns 16% of the company - and what will happen to his fortune. As Forbes pointed out in January, the state of Washington requires divorced couples to share their "common property" equally, including all income earned during the marriage.
An agreement before or after the marriage could change the way the assets are treated, but it is not known if the Bezos couple has entered into such an agreement. It is unlikely that they made a prenuptial agreement, because the couple got married before Bezos founded Amazon and Mackenzie was the company's accountant. If Mackenzie Bezos takes half of the couple's fortune, she will become the richest woman in the world. However, until there are details on how to separate the assets of the couple, we keep the property in the name of Jeff Bezos.
Bezos and his "predecessors"
Bezos is one of only four people to retain the title of richest man in the world over the past two 10 years. The others are: The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett, who was first on the list for a year, the Mexican Carlos Slim Helu, who held this title for four years and Bill Gates, who was first on the list for 12 years between 2001 and 2017. If Gates had not given $ 35,8 billion to his foundation, he would have been first this year - albeit marginally.
Source: Philenews / Forbes / Kerry A. Dolan