
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Wife MacKenzie Are Divorcing - tr33house
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/jeff-bezos-and-wife-mackenzie-are-divorcing-.html
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docker_up
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.

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sorenjan
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.

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bradenb
> 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.

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sorenjan
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?

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bradenb
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.

~~~
sorenjan
> 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).

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hn_throwaway_99
> 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.

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yesiamyourdad
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.

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judge2020
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...](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/jeff-bezos-and-wife-mackenzie-
are-divorcing-.html)

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josefresco
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?

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babyslothzoo
> 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

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babyslothzoo
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.

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ct0
She may have to pay for a prime subscription now.

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nsx147
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.

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godelmachine
Don’t know how the elite folks on HN will take it but this was first reported
by TMZ!

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elephantum
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.

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xienze
Say goodbye to that "wealthiest man in the world" title, Jeff.

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pastor_elm
flagged! let's keep hacker news an ivory tower, ok?

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tr33house
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

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throw7
egos burning brighter than the sun. gross.

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ldargin
You really can't buy love.

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Simon_says
Hacker News should be above celebrity gossip. It should be nobody's business
but their friends' and family's.

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danso
He publicly announced it, and besides being with him during the very beginning
of Amazon, she’s his partner with the Day One Fund.

~~~
Simon_says
It's not a violation of privacy. It's just not relevant.

