Bill Gates Transfers $850 Million in Deere Shares to Melinda French Gates -- 3rd Update
May 18 2021 - 3:25PM
Dow Jones News
By Theo Francis
Bill Gates has transferred more than $850 million in shares of
Deere & Co. to Melinda French Gates, bringing the total value
of publicly disclosed transfers to more than $3 billion since the
couple filed for divorce on May 3.
The 2.25 million shares, about 7% of Mr. Gates's stake in the
Moline, Ill., equipment manufacturer, were transferred on Thursday
and reported late Friday evening by the billionaire and his
investment vehicle, Cascade Investment LLC. The filing said Mr.
Gates received no consideration for the shares.
In the securities filing, Mr. Gates indicated he made the
disclosure because he and Cascade control more than the 10% stake
that triggers a reporting requirement. After the transfer, Mr.
Gates and Cascade still owned nearly 29.3 million shares, or 9.3%
of the company, they reported.
A spokesman for Cascade declined to comment beyond the filings.
Mr. Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp., resigned from its
board last spring amid a probe into his prior romantic relationship
with a female Microsoft employee.
Earlier this month, Mr. Gates transferred stakes in a Coca-Cola
bottler, a Canadian railroad, AutoNation Inc. and other companies
valued at nearly $2.4 billion to Ms. French Gates, as two of the
world's richest people began dividing their wealth.
Securities-disclosure experts say Mr. Gates and Ms. French Gates
might well have divided up other stakes in publicly and closely
held companies without having to make public disclosures. The
couple's net worth is about $130 billion, according to an estimate
from Forbes.
Write to Theo Francis at theo.francis@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 18, 2021 15:10 ET (19:10 GMT)
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