Published 17:22 IST, October 26th 2019
Jeff Bezos regains world's richest man title after momentary snag
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos regained his top position as the World’s richest man after losing the title briefly to Microsoft principal founder Bill Gates.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos regained his top position as the World’s richest man after he lost the title briefly to Bill Gates, the principal founder of Microsoft Corporation. Earlier, Bezos had lost nearly $7 billion in stock value after the third-quarter results of Amazon showed a dip in the revenue.
Amazon shares fell 7 per cent, on October 24, in after-hours trading which led to a significant drop in Bezos’ net worth. Bill Gates’ net worth stood at $105.7 billion, ahead of Bezos’ $103.9 billion. But the fortune of Amazon CEO once again took a turn on Friday, October 25, and Bezos’ net worth soared to $109.9 billion notwithstanding the shares dipped by 1 per cent to $ 1, 760.78.
Top position even after the divorce settlement
Earlier in October, Forbes’ had listed Jeff Bezos on the top of 400 wealthiest Americans, ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. He maintained his position even after parting 19.7 million shares of Amazon (4 per cent holding which was valued at $38 billion) to MacKenzie as a divorce settlement.
MacKenzie decided to donate
They finalised their divorce settlement in July which paved the for MacKenzie to get $38.3 bn which took her to 22nd place on Bloomberg Billionaire Index. But she decided to donate half of her alimony amount to investor Warren Buffett’s philanthropic campaign ‘the Giving Pledge’.
“My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty,” wrote MacKenzie in an open letter recently,” wrote MacKenzie in an open letter.
In a joint statement, the now separated couple, said, “We want to make people aware of a development in our lives. As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends”.
Updated 17:53 IST, October 26th 2019