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Jeff Bezos, founder and government chairman of Amazon, takes the stage throughout The New York Instances’ annual DealBook Summit, at Jazz at Lincoln Middle in New York Metropolis on Dec. 4, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Pictures
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to promote as much as 25 million shares within the firm over the subsequent yr, in keeping with a monetary submitting on Friday.
Bezos, who stepped down as CEO in 2021 however stays Amazon’s high shareholder, is promoting the shares as a part of a buying and selling plan adopted on March 4, the submitting states. The stake can be value about $4.8 billion on the present worth.
The disclosure follows Amazon’s first-quarter earnings report late Thursday. Whereas revenue and income topped estimates, the corporate’s forecast for working earnings within the present quarter got here in under Wall Road’s expectations.
The outcomes present that Amazon is bracing for uncertainty associated to President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs. The corporate landed within the crosshairs of the White Home this week over a report that Amazon deliberate to point out consumers the price of the tariffs. Trump personally known as Bezos to complain, and Amazon clarified that no such change was coming.
Bezos beforehand offloaded about $13.5 billion value of Amazon shares final yr, marking his first sale of firm inventory since 2021.
Since handing over the Amazon CEO function to Andy Jassy, Bezos has spent extra of his time on his area exploration firm, Blue Origin, and his $10 billion local weather and biodiversity fund. He is used Amazon share gross sales to assist fund Blue Origin, in addition to the Day One Fund, which he launched in September 2018 to supply schooling in low-income communities and fight homelessness.
