Jeff Bezos sells Amazon stock worth $2.8 bn; move aims at funding billionaire entrepreneur’s rocket firm Blue Origin

Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos offloaded $990 million worth of shares in the company on last Thursday and Friday, taking the total value of shares sold last week to $2.8 billion. In the last three days of July, Bezos has sold stock worth about $1.8 billion, regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed. Amazon declined to comment on Bezos’ stock sale. The move comes as part of a previously announced 10b5-1 trading plan. Bezos had previously said he plans to sell stock worth about $1 billion each year to fund his rocket company, Blue Origin. [caption id=“attachment_3865035” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file photo of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Reuters[/caption] Bezos’ former wife, Mackenzie Bezos, who currently owns Amazon stake worth more than $37 billion, is now the online retailer’s second-largest individual shareholder. In April this year, it was reported that MacKenzie would give 75 percent of their stake in the company and all voting rights to the billionaire entrepreneur. The announcement resolves questions about the direction of the world’s largest online retailer that have abounded since the couple announced their divorce in January. Bezos, widely viewed as a management guru whose long-term focus has been essential to Amazon’s meteoric stock rise, will retain company control. The settlement also suggested that Amazon will be spared the kind of boardroom battle that has plagued other companies whose owners are dealing with family rifts. “Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75 percent of our Amazon stock,” MacKenzie said in the tweet.