Why Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Offloaded $3.3B In The Ecommerce Company's Stock This Week

Amazon, Inc. AMZN founder Jeff Bezos offloaded a significant stake in the ecommerce giant this week.

What Happened: Bezos sold 391,550 shares during the week, which netted Amazon's executive chairman $3.3 billion, multiple filings done over the week showed. So far this year, he has sold Amazon stock worth $9.9 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The sales were all made in accordance with the Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, which allows insiders to sell a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time. It keeps them immune from accusations of insider trading.

After running the company in his capacity as CEO for 27 years, Bezos handed over its reins to Andy Jazzy in July of this year.

It was reasoned then that Bezos may want to dedicate more time to his other initiatives such as the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin spaceship company, Washington Post and the Amazon Day 1 Fund.

With the recent liquidation, Bezos' stake in Amazon has dropped from 42% in 1997 to a little under 10%, according to Forbes.

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Why It's Important: Bezos recently committed to contribute $2 billion to the Bezos Earth Fund, with the goal of restoring nature and transforming food systems.

Bezos is still the world's second-richest person, with a net worth of $202 billion, trailing Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the front-runner, by $136 billion.

Musk was in the news recently after he asked for a plan of action for solving world hunger, following comments from UN World Food Program director David Beasley that a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals could help solve world hunger with just a fraction of their net worth.

Last week, Bezos' Blue Origin lost a lawsuit, challenging NASA's award of the lunar lander contract to Musk-owned SpaceX. Blue Origin's business of space tourism is capital-intensive, requiring significant investment.

Amazon closed Friday's session up 1.21% at $3,518.99, but was seen edging down 0.23% to $3,511 in after-hours trading.

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