$146bn divorce: Bloomberg restores Bill Gates to billionaires’ list as wealth split begins

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has been restored to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after an initial removal from the list following the announcement of his divorce. 

On Monday, Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they were going through a divorce after 27 years in marriage.

Following the news, Bloomberg LP which maintains a real-time index on the wealthiest people on earth delisted Gates from its ranking, as reported here by TheCable.

After the news of the divorce went viral, Bloomberg said the couple controls $146 billion, which is now at stake and could be broken down to two units based on divorce papers.

The American news outlet said details of the possible wealth split have begun to emerge, with about $1.8 billion already transferred to Melinda French (Gates).

According to Bloomberg, Bill Gates’ biggest assets are in Cascade Investment, a holding company Bill created with proceeds of his Microsoft shares.

On May 3, 2021, the company was said to have transferred about $1.5 billion of Canadian National Railway Co. shares and more than $300 million of AutoNation Inc. stock to Melinda.

It is unclear how much more will be transferred to her as the divorce papers are worked out and signed by both parties.

THE BEZOS EXAMPLE

In the case of Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man and MacKenzie Scott, his ex-wife, a 75-25 division of the couple’s 16% stake in Amazon.com Inc. was reached. This shot Scott to a net worth of over $60 billion post-divorce.

For the Gates, Bloomberg suggests that the case would be different as their wealth is more diversified and vested in numerous companies and the Gates Foundation.

The duo had said in a public statement that they would still manage the foundation as co-chairs, which may mean sharing the wealth of the foundation equally.

The Gates live in Seattle, a city in Washington state, and according to state laws, the divorce cannot be finalised until three months from when it was filed.

This means we may not know Bill Gates’ eventual wealth until sometime in August 2021.