Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Wife MacKenzie Are Divorcing(cnbc.com)
cnbc.com
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Wife MacKenzie Are Divorcing
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/jeff-bezos-and-wife-mackenzie-are-divorcing-.html
38 comments
It's a bit TMZ to have this on HN, but the big tech question is what ownership stake does the ex-wife have on Amazon? Assuming they didn't have a pre-nup, does she get 50% of his stake in Amazon? Does she get a board seat? That could have deep implications for Amazon if for example she decides to sell that ownership stake and dilutes Jeff Bezos' control.
If that's how the system works, isn't that an incentive for the partner, the wife in this case, to divorce their spouse to get increased control? I don't know how much control she has at the moment being married to the person that actually owns the stocks, but if she gets 50% in a divorce that sounds like a financial jackpot. That's akin to state sponsored theft IMO.
> I don't know how much control she has at the moment being married to the person that actually owns the stocks, but if she gets 50% in a divorce that sounds like a financial jackpot. That's akin to state sponsored theft IMO.
I don't understand this comment. Marriage is not a social convention, it's a legal contract. Saying that she won a jackpot or somehow did something devious shows a huge level of misunderstanding.
I don't understand this comment. Marriage is not a social convention, it's a legal contract. Saying that she won a jackpot or somehow did something devious shows a huge level of misunderstanding.
My point is that if she stays married she has no control over the company, if she divorces and gets 50% of her husband's stocks she gets a lot of control. Close to $50 billion last time I checked. That's a legal contract that makes no sense, why would anyone stay married if they could gain $x billion from a divorce?
From my perspective, his wife was there to help enable the creation of Amazon. Jeff Bezos entered a contract when he got married where he believed an equal division of assets made sense. He apparently believed that contract made sense for 25 years. Who are we to say now that she shouldn't be entitled to half?
> why would anyone stay married if they could gain $x billion from a divorce?
Why not? Two people share a pool of $50b (obviously it's not _that_ simple). Seems like plenty to me. Divorce means you are 1 person with your own $25b pool. Unless she was somehow prevented from using the shared pool of money I'm not seeing a huge benefit here. If her goals with money were so drastically different than that of her husband's then I think that's as valid a reason for divorce as any: diverging goals and interests.
> why would anyone stay married if they could gain $x billion from a divorce?
Why not? Two people share a pool of $50b (obviously it's not _that_ simple). Seems like plenty to me. Divorce means you are 1 person with your own $25b pool. Unless she was somehow prevented from using the shared pool of money I'm not seeing a huge benefit here. If her goals with money were so drastically different than that of her husband's then I think that's as valid a reason for divorce as any: diverging goals and interests.
She helped build Amazon. She was there at the beginning, she drove him to Seattle to do it in the first place. She was with him for the whole ride. It sucks they split, but IMO the Bezos-owned portion is as much hers as his.
> From my perspective, his wife was there to help enable the creation of Amazon.
I don't know what she did or didn't do, so I don't want to discuss this case specifically. But the idea that your wife or husband contributes half of your work is not something I agree with. I understand that if one of them spent their whole married life prioritizing their home and family instead of their career so the other one could focus on theirs it makes sense to divide the assets using other metrics than who payed for it. But there have to be a limit, someone spending their days at home or out shopping is not worth millions or billions of their partner's money. After all, choosing to not focus on your own career is your choice.
Do you feel the same about negative things married people create? Should spouses share prison sentences if one of them commit crimes, like financial scams? If he would have been heavily in debt, should she share that too?
> diverging goals and interests.
I agree that's a valid reason for divorce. I don't agree that she should be entitled to 50% of his property (or that he should get 50% of hers, but it's a bit unequal in this situation).
I don't know what she did or didn't do, so I don't want to discuss this case specifically. But the idea that your wife or husband contributes half of your work is not something I agree with. I understand that if one of them spent their whole married life prioritizing their home and family instead of their career so the other one could focus on theirs it makes sense to divide the assets using other metrics than who payed for it. But there have to be a limit, someone spending their days at home or out shopping is not worth millions or billions of their partner's money. After all, choosing to not focus on your own career is your choice.
Do you feel the same about negative things married people create? Should spouses share prison sentences if one of them commit crimes, like financial scams? If he would have been heavily in debt, should she share that too?
> diverging goals and interests.
I agree that's a valid reason for divorce. I don't agree that she should be entitled to 50% of his property (or that he should get 50% of hers, but it's a bit unequal in this situation).
> But the idea that your wife or husband contributes half of your work is not something I agree with.
If you believe that, you really shouldn't ever get married, most certainly not in a community property state. Washington state is a community property state, which means that all of Amazon is equally both of theirs, legally.
If you believe that, you really shouldn't ever get married, most certainly not in a community property state. Washington state is a community property state, which means that all of Amazon is equally both of theirs, legally.
It's more correct to say that you shouldn't ever get divorced in a community property state. If Amazon were based in Texas, it'd be a very different situation. When it comes to divorce, it doesn't matter where you made the union, it's where you're dissolving it.
> But the idea that your wife or husband contributes half of your work is not something I agree with.
How do you know what would have been accomplished without that person's spouse managing the home? What if Jeff Bezos couldn't devote nearly as much time to Amazon if he had to take kids to appointments or be there when a contractor was at the house? And what if those diversions caused Amazon to be a flop? I would say that those contributions which were key to the success of the company absolutely do entitle you to 50%.
Now, I do think there's a legal argument to be made if that is clearly not the case, but a healthy person should have cut ties in that type of relationship before wealth was developed anyway. Presumably staying in the relationship after 25 years and after the accumulation of so much wealth meant that both parties were fine with an equal division of the assets.
How do you know what would have been accomplished without that person's spouse managing the home? What if Jeff Bezos couldn't devote nearly as much time to Amazon if he had to take kids to appointments or be there when a contractor was at the house? And what if those diversions caused Amazon to be a flop? I would say that those contributions which were key to the success of the company absolutely do entitle you to 50%.
Now, I do think there's a legal argument to be made if that is clearly not the case, but a healthy person should have cut ties in that type of relationship before wealth was developed anyway. Presumably staying in the relationship after 25 years and after the accumulation of so much wealth meant that both parties were fine with an equal division of the assets.
> How do you know what would have been accomplished without that person's spouse managing the home?
How do you know she didn't have her own career and the multi billionaires didn't have hired help to take care of their home? Should she be entitled to less than 50% if she worked as a regular employee in the company and they shared their domestic responsibilities equally?
> I would say that those contributions which were key to the success of the company absolutely do entitle you to 50%.
Driving your own kids to activities and washing some dishes is absolutely not key to the success of a huge company, or any company.
How do you know she didn't have her own career and the multi billionaires didn't have hired help to take care of their home? Should she be entitled to less than 50% if she worked as a regular employee in the company and they shared their domestic responsibilities equally?
> I would say that those contributions which were key to the success of the company absolutely do entitle you to 50%.
Driving your own kids to activities and washing some dishes is absolutely not key to the success of a huge company, or any company.
> How do you know she didn't have her own career and the multi billionaires didn't have hired help to take care of their home? Should she be entitled to less than 50% if she worked as a regular employee in the company and they shared their domestic responsibilities equally?
Whether she had a career or not doesn't matter. If they found an amicable way to share responsibilities and during the entire 25 years of their marriage and Amazon's growth they became fabulously wealthy then it should be shared evenly. If Jeff Bezos felt like his wife was somehow undeserving of his wealth then he could have divorced her during the early years of Amazon's success.
> Driving your own kids to activities and washing some dishes is absolutely not key to the success of a huge company, or any company.
How do you know? Every moment you can spend working on your business instead of washing dishes is a moment you're contributing to your business' success. There's a reason for the phrase "Behind every successful [man|woman] there's a strong ____."
Whether she had a career or not doesn't matter. If they found an amicable way to share responsibilities and during the entire 25 years of their marriage and Amazon's growth they became fabulously wealthy then it should be shared evenly. If Jeff Bezos felt like his wife was somehow undeserving of his wealth then he could have divorced her during the early years of Amazon's success.
> Driving your own kids to activities and washing some dishes is absolutely not key to the success of a huge company, or any company.
How do you know? Every moment you can spend working on your business instead of washing dishes is a moment you're contributing to your business' success. There's a reason for the phrase "Behind every successful [man|woman] there's a strong ____."
> But there have to be a limit, someone spending their days at home or out shopping is not worth millions or billions of their partner's money
I have a hard time believing anyone's time is "worth millions or billions".
I have a hard time believing anyone's time is "worth millions or billions".
I think the opinion that the title is quite "gossipy" for HN is shared with a good portion of the community. I was entirely ready to just disregard the post after skimming the comments, but your point about splitting of assets is a great topic for discussion.
What has happened historically when an executive gets divorced? Is this is the first high-profile tech company executive divorce?
What has happened historically when an executive gets divorced? Is this is the first high-profile tech company executive divorce?
I was wondering that too, but then I realized that would only have a big effect if stockholders thought he was doing a bad job and I bet most everyone doesn't think that.
Not sure I follow. If his ownership stake is cut in half, and the ex-wife owns half of Bezos' stake in Amazon, that effectively cuts his power in half.
Sure, right now they are likely on the same page, but what about in 5 years? What if she starts selling her stake or sells her decision-making stake to an activist hedge fund, for example, or someone directly adversarial to Bezos? It could make things a lot harder for him to lead the company.
Sure, right now they are likely on the same page, but what about in 5 years? What if she starts selling her stake or sells her decision-making stake to an activist hedge fund, for example, or someone directly adversarial to Bezos? It could make things a lot harder for him to lead the company.
This article is currently flagged, but I hope it gets "unflagged". Washington State is a community property state, which would normally mean all of Bezos' Amazon shares are owned equally by the both of them. I'm not a lawyer, but would be a good discussion to understand how the assets of the largest shareholder of America's largest (or 2nd largest) company will be split.
Most of the time I'm fine with AMP links, but this one is awful.
Non-amp: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/jeff-bezos-and-wife-mackenzi...
Non-amp: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/jeff-bezos-and-wife-mackenzi...
My first reaction: "Why is this even news?!?"
Then after I RTFA...
"The billionaire executive announced the news Wednesday ... in a tweet signed by both of them."
Oh.
Despite that, I'm not sure what there is for us at HN to discuss. Maybe how divorce effects successful businesses?
Then after I RTFA...
"The billionaire executive announced the news Wednesday ... in a tweet signed by both of them."
Oh.
Despite that, I'm not sure what there is for us at HN to discuss. Maybe how divorce effects successful businesses?
> Despite that, I'm not sure what there is for us at HN to discuss. Maybe how divorce effects successful businesses?
I hate the gossipy implications of these stories, and they're legitimately sad news, but there is plenty to discuss that is relevant to HN
- How this could impact Amazon, Blue Origin, etc
- How challenging relationships are
- How difficult it is to stay together through major life changes, in this case they married before Amazon and are splitting now with Amazon being one of the worlds largest companies... imagine that journey together?
- How divorce/breakups effect people
- How relationships/divorce/breakups effect businesses, financial decisions
etc
I hate the gossipy implications of these stories, and they're legitimately sad news, but there is plenty to discuss that is relevant to HN
- How this could impact Amazon, Blue Origin, etc
- How challenging relationships are
- How difficult it is to stay together through major life changes, in this case they married before Amazon and are splitting now with Amazon being one of the worlds largest companies... imagine that journey together?
- How divorce/breakups effect people
- How relationships/divorce/breakups effect businesses, financial decisions
etc
HN has plenty of threads about how relationships and other life factors affect work and business.
I think thats it. We don't know how much or how many shares she owns.
I find this to be sad news, divorce is typically devastating for everyone involved.
Finding a life partner is incredibly difficult, someone with shared values that you can trust for life and with your life.
Finding a life partner is incredibly difficult, someone with shared values that you can trust for life and with your life.
She may have to pay for a prime subscription now.
Why flag this post? It is relevant. When Tiger woods got divorced his golf game spiraled downward. To say this will have absolutely zero impact on Amazon is naive. There are ownership issues that are worth billions to sort out.
Don’t know how the elite folks on HN will take it but this was first reported by TMZ!
Is it possible that they foresee problems with Amazon valuation and this a way to save half of the assets they have?
Whether it's true will depend on what his wife is about to do with the shares.
Whether it's true will depend on what his wife is about to do with the shares.
Say goodbye to that "wealthiest man in the world" title, Jeff.
flagged! let's keep hacker news an ivory tower, ok?
I still think that this is of interest to hackers around the world. I'll take it down if you convince me otherwise since it's of a personal nature
egos burning brighter than the sun. gross.
Hacker News should be above celebrity gossip. It should be nobody's business but their friends' and family's.
He publicly announced it, and besides being with him during the very beginning of Amazon, she’s his partner with the Day One Fund.
It's not a violation of privacy. It's just not relevant.