Billionaire Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott Files for Divorce From Second Husband
The ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos married Dan Jewett last year
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Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, has filed for divorce from her second husband, according to court records.
Ms. Scott filed a petition for divorce from Dan Jewett in King County Superior Court in Washington state, according to a filing dated Monday. She had married Mr. Jewett, then a teacher at a private Seattle school, last year. She and Mr. Bezos divorced in 2019 after 25 years of marriage.
Mr. Jewett agreed to the divorce, according to court records. The couple already had a separation contract, which specifies how their debts and liabilities would be divided, the records said.
Ms. Scott and her lawyer, as well as Mr. Jewett and his lawyer, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on behalf of Mr. Bezos.
Ms. Scott has given away billions of her wealth since divorcing Mr. Bezos. In 2019, she joined the Giving Pledge, pledging to give away a large chunk of her wealth. Some of the organisations that received donations since Ms. Scott’s and Mr. Jewett’s marriage thanked both of them.
In a nine-month period, Ms. Scott donated $3.86 billion to 465 different organisations, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Ms. Scott has a net worth of $28.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making her the 39th richest person in the world. That number has been falling as she has been donating much of her wealth. At one point in 2020, her net worth was as high as $67.4 billion, according to the index.
Both Ms. Scott and Mr. Jewett live in King County in Washington state, according to the divorce filing. The couple was married in the state of California.
Ms. Scott helped Mr. Bezos in founding Amazon. She owned a roughly 2.9% stake in Amazon as of February of this year, according to FactSet, but Mr. Bezos retained those shares’ voting rights.
She and Mr. Bezos have four children together.
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“Only with competition can we become stronger and allow the industry to remain healthy,” Ma said
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Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma said competition will make the company stronger and the e-commerce giant needs to trust in the power of market forces and innovation, according to an internal memo to commemorate the company’s 25th anniversary.
“Many of Alibaba’s business face challenges and the possibility of being surpassed, but that’s to be expected as no single company can stay at the top forever in any industry,” Ma said in a letter sent to employees late Tuesday, seen by The Wall Street Journal.
Once a darling of Wall Street and the dominant player in China’s e-commerce industry, the tech giant’s growth has slowed amid a weakening Chinese economy and subdued consumer sentiment. Intensifying competition from homegrown upstarts such as PDD Holdings ’ Pinduoduo e-commerce platform and ByteDance’s short-video app Douyin has also pressured Alibaba’s growth momentum.
“Only with competition can we become stronger and allow the industry to remain healthy,” Ma said.
The letter came after Alibaba recently completed a three-year regulatory process in China.
Chinese regulators said in late August that they have completed their monitoring and evaluation of Alibaba after the company was penalized over monopolistic practices in 2021. Over the past three years, the company has been required to submit self-evaluation compliance reports to market regulators.
Ma reiterated Alibaba’s ambition of being a company that can last 102 years. He urged Alibaba’s employees to not flounder in the midst of challenges and competition.
“The reason we’re Alibaba is because we have idealistic beliefs, we trust the future, believe in the market. We believe that only a company that can create real value for society can keep operating for 102 years,” he said.
Ma himself has kept a low profile since late 2020 when financial affiliate Ant Group called off initial public offerings in Hong Kong and Shanghai that had been on track to raise more than $34 billion.
In a separate internal letter in April, he praised Alibaba’s leadership and its restructuring efforts after the company split the group into six independently run companies.
Alibaba recently completed the conversion of its Hong Kong secondary listing into a primary listing, and on Tuesday was added to a scheme allowing investors in mainland China to trade Hong Kong-listed shares.
Alibaba shares fell 1.2% to 80.60 Hong Kong dollars, or equivalent of US$10.34, by midday Wednesday, after rising 4.2% on Tuesday following the Stock Connect inclusion. The company’s shares are up 6.9% so far this year.
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