Bill Gates Has Transferred $3 Billion in Shares to Melinda Since Divorce Announcement: Report
Kamil Zihnioglu/AFP/Getty Melinda Gates and Bill Gates
In the wake of his surprise split from wife Melinda French Gates, Bill Gates has transferred more than $3 billion in shares to her — the most recent being a large chunk of Deere & Co., according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
Bill, 65, transferred more than $850 million in shares of the Illinois-based equipment manufacturer to Melinda on Thursday, an amount that equals about 7 percent of his stake in the company (or 2.25 million shares), the outlet reported.
The publicly disclosed transfers were reported late Friday by the billionaire Microsoft co-founder and Cascade Investment LLC, his investment vehicle.
"The filing said Mr. Gates received no consideration for the shares," the WSJ reported, adding that in the securities filing, Bill "indicated he made the disclosure because he and Cascade control more than the 10 percent stake that triggers a reporting requirement."
The filing reportedly states that even after the transfer to Melinda, 56, Bill and Cascade still own about 9.3 percent of Deere & Co., or 29.3 million shares.
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The WSJ reported that Thursday's transfer comes after Bill also transferred Melinda stakes in a Coca-Cola bottler, a Canadian railroad, AutoNation Inc. and other companies valued at nearly $2.4 billion.
The couple has a net worth of about $130 billion, according to Forbes — and when Melinda filed for divorce on May 3, her documents indicated that she and Bill have a separation agreement in place, something a source previously told PEOPLE is likely part of a plan to keep things as civil and private as possible between the former couple, who have said they still plan to work together at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Randy Kessler, a celebrity divorce lawyer, told PEOPLE shortly after the couple announced their split that "Mr. and Mrs. Gates and their lawyers have done an exemplary job of resolving their issues privately and professionally and have therefore controlled their own matters instead of leaving it to a judge."
liewig christian/Getty Bill and Melinda Gates
In the weeks since they announced they would go their separate ways after 27 years of marriage, Bill and Melinda's marriage has been thrust into the spotlight — including Bill's 2000 affair with a Microsoft staffer that a spokesperson said "ended amicably."
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"He could have treated Melinda better," a source previously told PEOPLE. "He's not a saint, but there isn't one thing that created the final split. It goes deeper than that."
"It's many years of differing views of the world, the foundation, and of life in general, and those things piling up. They are older and each personally looked at life and asked, 'Is there more out there than what I have?'" the source continued.
The couple, who were married on New Year's Day in Lanai, Hawaii in 1994, share three children, daughters Jennifer, 25, and Phoebe, 18, and son Rory, 21.
