Jeff Bezos Planned $5.4 Billion Amazon Stock Sale on Wedding Day

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos (MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images)

Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chair of Amazon.com, was planning to do more than exchange vows on his wedding day, June 27. According to a regulatory form he filed Friday, he also intended to sell 25 million shares of the e-commerce and cloud company for $5.4 billion, an average price of $217.12 each.

That day, Bezos filed a notice of a proposed Friday sale with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual numbers may differ, and there is a chance the transaction itself might not have been executed.

Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request to provide comment from Bezos.

If the transaction went through as disclosed, Bezos would still have plenty of shares left after the planned sale, which would be his first for 2025. According to another SEC filing, he owned 908.8 million Amazon shares in a personal account before the sale.

Bezos’ latest sale of Amazon stock was over Nov. 12 and 13, when he sold a total of 3.3 million shares for $678 million, an average price of $205.44.

The 25 million shares Bezos planned to sell were founder stock he received in July 1994, about three years before Amazon went public in May 1997.

Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.

Write to Ed Lin at ed.lin@barrons.com