Brin, 48, has a net worth of $94 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is mostly derived from his stakes in Google, which he co-founded with Larry Page in 1998 and later merged with Alphabet Inc. He and Page both left Alphabet in 2019, but they remain on the board of directors and are the majority shareholders.
Digital
Desk: Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google and the world's sixth richest
person, has filed for a divorce from his three-year-long wife, becoming the
third billionaire to do so in as many years.
According to court filings, Brin filed a
petition for divorce from his marriage to Nicole Shanahan this month, citing
"irreconcilable disagreements." The couple, who have a three-year-old
boy, requested that court documents be sealed in order to keep the specifics of
their divorce confidential.
According to the filing in Santa Clara,
California, "because of the high-profile nature of their relationship,
there is likely to be tremendous public interest in their divorce case and any
prospective child custody difficulties."
Brin, 48, has a net worth of $94 billion,
according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is mostly derived from his
stakes in Google, which he co-founded with Larry Page in 1998 and later merged
with Alphabet Inc. He and Page both left Alphabet in 2019, but they remain on
the board of directors and are the majority shareholders.
Brin's first marriage to Anne Wojcicki,
co-founder of 23andMe, ended in divorce in 2015.
His latest divorce comes a year after Bill
Gates and Melinda French Gates announced their divorce, and three years after
Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced. When they split up, Bill and Melinda
Gates had a $145 billion fortune to divide, whereas Jeff Bezos and Jeff Scott
had a $137 billion fortune to divide.
Because the relationship began long after he
became a billionaire, Monica Mazzei, a partner at Sideman & Bancroft LLP in
San Francisco, believes Brin and Shanahan have a prenuptial agreement. "We
will never know the details" of the divorce, she claimed, because the
matter is being handled by a private judge.
Bia-Echo Foundation
According to Mazzei, philanthropy could play
a role in the divorce settlement. According to its website, Shanahan founded
the Bia-Echo Foundation, which focuses on "longevity and equity, criminal
justice reform, and a healthy and livable earth." According to its most
recent tax filing, the foundation had $16.7 million in assets and made $7.4
million in donations in 2019.
According to Mazzei, divorce agreements commonly include
support for an ex-charity spouse's charitable contributions since it helps both
parties: the grantor receives a tax credit while the grantee retains control
over their philanthropic contributions. Brin was the only donor to the
foundation that year, according to the tax form, with a gift of more than $23
million.
When contacted by phone,
the Bia-Echo Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.
Scott
has become the world's most prolific philanthropist since her divorce from
Bezos, contributing billions of dollars to a variety of causes thanks to the 4
percent stake she purchased in Amazon.com Inc. in 2019.
Following
their divorce, the Gateses' attention has shifted to philanthropy. The former
pair, unlike Scott and Bezos, had already established themselves as mega-donors
through their Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and there were concerns about
how the $50 billion charity engine would be damaged.
Since then, French Gates has focused on her
own philanthropic investment organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which she founded
in 2015 with the goal of delivering "creative solutions to problems
affecting women and girls."
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