Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has sold 14 million shares in his tech giant worth $2.4 billion. The sale marks his second in a week for the second time in a week and brings to 50 million the number of shares he has offloaded, netting the billionaire $8.5 billion.
Amazon on Tuesday night confirmed the recent stock market transactions of some top executives, including Bezos, who remains executive chairman of the online shopping and cloud giant.
At time of writing the share price was hovering around $168.
The sale, while massive, did not come as a surprise to executives. Amazon announced earlier this year that the Bezos could sell 50 million sharesover the course of a year. The scale of the transaction may be massive but as far as the board is concerned this has been flages well in advance.
Observers have linked the sale to Bezos’ recent move from northwest Seattle, Amazon’s home base, to southeast Miami in Florida, saving him an estimated $430 million in capital gains tax – which is charged at 7% in Washington but does not exist in the Sunshine State.
The value of Amazon shares climbed 74% in the past year but Bezos is hardly cashing in his interest. He still owns more than 938 million shares, about 9% of the capital.
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