Jeff Bezos finalizes Amazon stock sale plan. Jeff Bezos sells 14 million shares of Amazon.com Inc. worth around US$2.4 billion, while completing plans to sell up to 50 million shares in just nine trading days.
According to the disclosure of information to the regulator, this latest transaction brings the total sale of shares worth US$8.5 billion, which was carried out over three trading days ending on Tuesday (20/2). Meanwhile, based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos, the third richest person in the world, has a net worth of US$191.3 billion.
Before making this massive sale, Bezos is known to have not sold his company shares since 2021. Apart from being the founder of Amazon, Bezos, who owns the space exploration company Blue Origin and the Washington Post, has not disclosed plans regarding the proceeds of his sale.
Bezos announced on November 2, 2023 that he would move to Miami from the Seattle area. For your information, the state of Washington imposes a tax on capital gains of 7% in 2022. This is not implemented in Florida. Considering this, Bezos’ relocation will probably save US$288 million so far.
The tax bill would be significant for Washington. According to state officials, Washington collected US$855 million in capital gains in 2023, with more than half coming from just 10 people. Jeff Bezos finalizes Amazon stock sale plan
The tax has met with some resistance in the state. Billionaire Ken Fisher said in March 2023 that he would move his company from Washington to Texas, criticizing the tax and court decisions that upheld the tax.
On the other hand, it was recently discovered that Amazon would replace Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Amazon’s inclusion in the index is another milestone in its massive expansion in the last decade.
Amazon, founded in 1994 as an online bookseller, now sells a wide range of goods and runs the world’s largest cloud computing business. The company has also become the second largest private company in the United States (US) after Walmart.
