Most millionaires at the helm of the world’s largest fortunes are founders or major investors in the most successful companies. One is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is currently the second-richest person on Earth.
Taking advantage of Amazon’s good stock market momentum, its founder has decided to sell some of his shares. The transaction will leave Bezos with $4.93 billion in cash.
FYI: millions of shares for sale. The e-commerce magnate has used the recent upward trend that Amazon shares have experienced to sell of 25 million shares of the business he founded.
As one of the company’s most significant private shareholders, Bezos must disclose the sale in advance to U.S. securities regulators to prevent potential fraud and market manipulation. As part of a business plan for the sale, he filed the paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the close of business on Tuesday, July 2.
Taking advantage of Amazon’s stock market rally. The billionaire’s decision to sell Amazon shares wasn’t a coincidence. He took advantage of the peak of the bull market for the company’s shares, which have risen 32% so far this year, outperforming the Dow Jones annual average by 4%.
In fact, on Tuesday, the company set a record in its valuation since Amazon went public in 1997. Its stock had never exceededed $200 per share.
This is the second time that Bezos has cashed out in 2024. In February, the billionaire announced a plan to sell his shares in two stages, bringing in about $8.5 billion between the two transactions recorded that month. On that occasion, he did so after an 80% increase in Amazon's share price.
With this new stock sale operation, Bezos will obtain total of about $13.5 billion in cash. Notably, his move from Seattle to Miami will save him a good amount of taxes in these operations.
Bezos still has a lot of work to do at Amazon. Getting rid of 25 million shares of a company like Amazon may seem like a lot. However, Bezos' position in the business allows him to do sell and still have 912 million shares in his treasure chest. In other words, Bezos has equivalent of 8.8% of Amazon’s outstanding shares.
Bezos’ fortune is estimated at approximately $214.3 billion.
Image | Flickr (UKinUSA)
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