A US judge has ruled that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' wife MacKenzie will get a 4% stake in the tech giant. Concerns were mounting that the king of online retail may lose some of his power as a major shareholder.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and wife MacKenzie finalized their divorce on Friday, paving the way for her to receive $38.3 billion (€34.1 billion) worth of the tech giant's stock, Bloomberg News reported.
The final deal, set by a judge in Washington state's King County, will see her receive approximately 19.7 million shares in Amazon.com, giving her a 4% state in the company.
In doing so, MacKenzie Bezos becomes the 20th wealthiest billionaire on the 2019 Forbes Rich List, ahead of Telsa's Elon Musk and Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
The novelist has said she would give her stake in The Washington Post and the space exploration firm Blue Origin to her husband as well as voting control of her remaining Amazon stock.
Huge charity donation
She has also promised to donate half her fortune to charity, joining the ranks of the world's ultra-wealthy philanthropists as a signatory of the Giving Pledge.
Jeff Bezos, 55, will retain a 12 stake in Amazon worth $114.8 billion and remain the world's richest person.
The couple's personal life was thrust into the spotlight in January when they made a joint divorce announcement on Twitter following 25 years of marriage.
Some investors were concerned that the Amazon founder could wind up with a reduced voting power or that he or MacKenzie would liquidate a large part of their holdings in the online retailer.
The pair married in 1993 and have four children. A year later, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in their Seattle garage and turned it into a colossus that dominates e-commerce globally.