Jeff Bezos sells $ 1.8 billion of Amazon stock, here's why

Jeff BezosREUTERS / Joshua Roberts

• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold $ 1.8 billion worth of shares of the company at the end of July.

• This was perhaps his biggest sale of the history of Amazon.
• Neither Bezos nor Amazon provided any reason for the sale of the shares, but this is happening because Amazon, among other technology companies, is undergoing a thorough review of its size and influence .
• It is also possible that Bezos uses some of the money for its Blue Origin space exploration company or its charity, the Bezos Day One Fund.
• Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has just sold $ 1.8 billion worth of what could have been his biggest stock sale in the company's history Internet.

Bezos received more than 960,000 shares valued at approximately $ 1,900 during the last three days of July, as evidenced by company filings with the Security and Exchange Commission. This accounted for 1.6% of Bezos' total stake in the company, and it could be the largest Amazon stock sale that Bezos has made since its inception more than 20 years ago. , according to Forbes.

Bezos also transferred 19.7 million shares to his wife MacKenzie Bezos, making her the second largest single shareholder in the company, as noted by Bloomberg. His 4% stake in the company is $ 37 billion.

It is unclear why Bezos decided to sell his shares at that time. True, sales were part of a 10b5-1 trading plan, in which shares are automatically sold on predetermined dates in order to avoid any perception of trading on insider knowledge.

Nevertheless, a leader who collects large chunks of shares is often considered a negative sign, because he suggests that the person may not be as optimistic about the potential of the action as in the past.

As the owner of several other companies, including a space exploration company and the Washington Post newspaper, Bezos has a lot to do. There are many personal reasons why Bezos has sold his shares that have nothing to do with Amazon.

Here's our best guess as to how much money his stock sales could bring him, as well as some of the big issues that cloud the future of Amazon and coincide with these changes.

Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for more details on the sale.