Jeff Bezos to retain 75 per cent of Amazon stock in divorce settlement

Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos were married for 25 years. Photo/Getty Images.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, announced Thursday a divorce settlement that will leave him with 75 per cent of their Amazon stock and all of their joint holdings in The Washington Post and a space-exploration company, Blue Origin.

He will retain voting power over all of the Amazon voting shares the couple once owned together.

The announcement from the Bezos - coming in a tweet from MacKenzie that was retweeted by Jeff - settled a closely watched matter of corporate governance affecting one of the world's richest companies, with a market capitalisation of US$890 billion.

Together the couple owned 78.8 million shares, or about 16 per cent of the company.

Business Insider estimates that MacKenzie will be left with $35.6 billion while Jeff will retain a $106.7 billion stake in the company.

The divorce settlement is likely to remove uncertainty over the extent of Jeff Bezos' continued control over a company he founded in 1994 and for which he remains chief executive and its largest shareholder. Their marriage lasted 25 years and produced four children.

pic.twitter.com/OJWn3OOLS6

— MacKenzie Scott (@mackenziescott) April 4, 2019

MacKenzie Bezos, a novelist, spoke first through Twitter, writing, "Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support of each other and everyone who reached out to us in kindness, and looking forward to the next phase as co-parents and friends."

While the pair have put out an amicable front on social media, claiming that they "remain cherished friends", the story has also had a salacious side, with the National Enquirer threating to publish nude selfies that Bezos sent to TV star Lauren Sanchez.

The threats led Bezos to launch an investigation into who leaked the texts and how they ended up with the publication.

That investigation eventually implicated Sanchez's brother, Michael, who has long been a supporter of Donald Trump.

- Washington Post