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Realistically how can he do that without tanking the stock price? He owns 100B in Amazon stock. Anyone with knowledge care to chime in on how he could ever ac

Realistically how can he do that without tanking the stock price? He owns 100B in Amazon stock. Anyone with knowledge care to chime in on how he could ever access it? For comparison, Vanguard and Blackrock (shares owned by little folks like us) own 69B and 59B. Mackenzie, his ex-wife, owns 33B and has pledged to give hers away as well on The Giving Pledge.

wfleming 4y ago
He can give the shares away directly. Start a charitable foundation, give the shares to the foundation, and then the foundation can liquidate slowly (over decades if need be) to access capital.
- Mistletoe 4y ago
  Oh that’s an interesting idea.
- ch4s3 4y ago
  Wouldn't the effect be basically the same, except the ownership changes? I can't imagine he'd have no involvement in such a foundation.
  - Mistletoe 4y ago
    But the charity doesn’t need to liquidate as quickly as he does if he intends to give it away by the end of his life.
    - ch4s3 4y ago
      One imagines that the endgame for him is probably some sort of charity to hand off to anyway.
chadash 4y ago
He won't sell it all at once. Bill Gates used to own lots of Microsoft stock. Over time he sold it off and diversified, to the point that it's now only about 25% of his net worth. The key thing is that over time, Microsoft transitioned to a point where Bill Gates wasn't running things day-to-day and investors became comfortable with him not having any control. At that point, him selling shares was no big deal. At the other end of the extreme would be someone like Elon Musk, where Tesla's stock price is almost entirely dependent on him being at the helm. If he were to walk away now, the shares would tank in value. Jeff Bezos is somewhere in between. Clearly, Amazon would run okay without him, but he still has some involvement. He certainly can't sell all of his shares, but if he sells over time and makes it clear (and credible) that he is selling in order to use his money elsewhere (rather than trying to time the market because he thinks the stock is overpriced), the share prices of Amazon should hold up just fine.

wfleming 4y ago

He can give the shares away directly. Start a charitable foundation, give the shares to the foundation, and then the foundation can liquidate slowly (over decades if need be) to access capital.

Mistletoe 4y ago
Oh that’s an interesting idea.
ch4s3 4y ago
Wouldn't the effect be basically the same, except the ownership changes? I can't imagine he'd have no involvement in such a foundation.
- Mistletoe 4y ago
  But the charity doesn’t need to liquidate as quickly as he does if he intends to give it away by the end of his life.
  - ch4s3 4y ago
    One imagines that the endgame for him is probably some sort of charity to hand off to anyway.

chadash 4y ago

He won't sell it all at once. Bill Gates used to own lots of Microsoft stock. Over time he sold it off and diversified, to the point that it's now only about 25% of his net worth. The key thing is that over time, Microsoft transitioned to a point where Bill Gates wasn't running things day-to-day and investors became comfortable with him not having any control. At that point, him selling shares was no big deal. At the other end of the extreme would be someone like Elon Musk, where Tesla's stock price is almost entirely dependent on him being at the helm. If he were to walk away now, the shares would tank in value. Jeff Bezos is somewhere in between. Clearly, Amazon would run okay without him, but he still has some involvement. He certainly can't sell all of his shares, but if he sells over time and makes it clear (and credible) that he is selling in order to use his money elsewhere (rather than trying to time the market because he thinks the stock is overpriced), the share prices of Amazon should hold up just fine.