Amazon chief Jeff Bezos buys Warner Estate from Geffen for $165 mn: Report

Billionaire Amazon chief Jeff Bezos has purchased a Los Angeles-area estate for $165 million, setting a new record for the region, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Bezos bought the Warner Estate from media mogul David Geffen, according to the Journal.

It said the deal topped a Los Angeles-area home price record set last year when Lachlan Murdoch paid around $150 million for a Bel-Air estate seen in "The Beverly Hillbillies," a 1960s television show.

The Warner Estate spans nine acres (3.6 hectares) in Beverly Hills. It is a Georgian-style compound with a floor once owned by Napoleon, guest houses, a tennis court, and a nine-hole golf course.

It was originally built in the 1930s by the late Jack Warner, former president of Warner Brothers, the Journal reported.

Bezos, whose worth has been estimated at more than $110 billion, started internet colossus Amazon and is considered the richest person in the world.

Amazon has expanded from its original mission as an online retailer and now is a major force in cloud computing.

Its digital assistant Alexa has been incorporated into thousands of consumer products, and the firm operates one of the largest streaming video services.

Bezos also owns The Washington Post newspaper.

The $38 billion divorce: Jeff Bezos, wife MacKenzie are about to split

One of the biggest wealth transfers in history is expected in coming days.

With the flick of a judge’s pen, a $38 billion stake in Amazon.com Inc. will pass to MacKenzie Bezos as part of her separation from company founder Jeff Bezos.

“This is the Godzilla of all divorces,” said Peter Walzer, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and founding partner of Walzer Melcher. “Nothing comes close to it because of the amount of wealth that’s being divided.”

A regulatory disclosure detailing the shift in ownership is expected in early July, according to an April filing. It will provide a rare glimpse inside the world’s richest divorce, a result of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules that require insiders to disclose changes in their holdings.

While divorce cases aren’t secret in Washington state, little else is expected to be revealed. “Even in states where it isn’t confidential parties can file for divorce but not attach their settlement agreement,” Walzer said. “There are ways around the public nature of divorce.”

Jeff Bezos, 55, remains the world’s richest person, with a 12% Amazon stake worth $112 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He’ll retain other assets, including the Washington Post and space-exploration company Blue Origin, MacKenzie Bezos, 49, said in an April tweet.

The amounts involved are unprecedented. While Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison has been through multiple divorces, none has affected his stake in the software maker. Likewise, Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s stake remained unchanged after he and Anne Wojcicki divorced without fanfare in 2015.

Oil industry magnate Harold Hamm’s separation from Sue Ann Arnall was far messier. The couple filed for divorce in 2012 after 26 years of marriage, and their trial two years later ended with Hamm, the chairman and CEO of Continental Resources Inc., being ordered to pay her $972 million of his then-estimated $16.1 billion fortune. Arnall later sought to reopen the case but the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed the appeal in 2015.

MacKenzie Bezos has said she intends to give away much of her wealth. She signed the Giving Pledge in May, promising to donate more than half of her fortune to philanthropy.

“I won’t wait,” she wrote in her pledge. “And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”

The divorce petition identifies Bellevue, Washington-based Ted Billbe as her lawyer. Seattle’s Sherri Anderson is the attorney for Jeff Bezos. Neither responded to requests for comment. Even if other details stay under wraps, the case is set to remain a cornerstone of conversation among divorce lawyers.

“Everybody in my business is asking about it,” Walzer said.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to keep 75% of his stock after divorcing wife

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will retain 75 per cent of his stock in the company following his divorce from MacKenzie Bezos, to whom he has been married for 25 years, the couple announced Thursday on Twitter.

Bezos will remain the largest shareholder of the e-commerce giant valued at almost $900 billion as well as gaining voting control of his former wife’s remaining shares. Bezos will also maintain ownership of The Washington Post and his space exploration company Blue Origin.

“Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support from each other and everyone who reach out to us in kindness,” MacKenzie Bezos wrote on Twitter.

“Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75% of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my shares to support his continued contributions with the teams of these incredible companies.”

MacKenzie Bezos retains 4 per cent of Amazon, according to a filing Thursday.

The Bezoses announced their divorce in January, hours before the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper began tweeting that it planned to publish an expose that Jeff Bezos had been having a relationship with Lauren Sanchez, a former TV anchor. The announcement sparked speculation about how their exceptional wealth, estimated at more than $130 billion, would be divided. Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest person and will remain in that position after the divorce, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos met in New York at D.E. Shaw. Jeff was the first person to interview MacKenzie for a role at the hedge fund and the pair ended up having offices next to each other, according to a 2013 interview with Vogue. They married in 1993 and a year later drove across the country to Seattle, where Jeff founded Amazon. They have four children.

MacKenzie, an author, played a significant role at the company in the early years, but her presence faded in later years. Most high-ranking employees saw her at social events the couple hosted at their Medina, Washington, home and elsewhere. They’d also be spotted at Lakeside, a Seattle private school, with their children.

When Amazon showcased its new biospheres, the plant-filled architectural centerpiece of its Seattle headquarters, the couple toured the building with a horticulturist. MacKenzie also accompanied her husband to Hollywood events after Amazon began a concerted push into video and original programming.

Jeff Bezos' phone hacked by Saudis to access personal data: Investigator

The investigator hired to look into the release of intimate images of Jeff Bezos said Sunday he has concluded that Saudi Arabian authorities hacked the Amazon chief's phone to access his personal data.

Gavin de Becker linked the hack to extensive coverage by The Washington Post newspaper, which is owned by Bezos, of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last year.

"Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos' phone, and gained private information," de Becker wrote on The Daily Beast website.

He said that while the brother of Bezos's mistress was paid by the National Enquirer scandal sheet for the release of the information, his role may have been a red herring, and the plot went far beyond one man seeking to cash in.

"It's clear that MBS considers The Washington Post to be a major enemy," de Becker wrote, referring to the oil-rich kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom the US Senate, after a closed-door briefing by the CIA, named as "responsible" for the murder.

But de Becker did not specify which part of the Saudi government he was blaming for the hack, and gave few details about the investigation that led him to the conclusion that the kingdom was responsible.

The results, he wrote, "have been turned over to federal officials." Bezos hired Gavin de Becker & Associates to find out how his intimate text messages and photos made their way into the hands of the Enquirer, which reported on the Amazon chief's extramarital affair, leading to his divorce.

Bezos has accused Enquirer publisher American Media Inc, led by David Pecker, of "blackmail" for threatening to publish the intimate photos if he did not halt the investigation.

The Amazon chief declined to do so, instead publishing copies of emails from AMI. Saudi Arabia has stressed that the crown prince was not involved in the killing of Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist.

Riyadh initially said it had no knowledge of his fate, but later blamed the murder on rogue agents.