Amazon’s Board of Directors approved a 20-for-1 split of the company’s common stock, subject to shareholder approval at the annual meeting scheduled for May 25.
CNN said shareholder stakes would still be worth the same, they’d simply be holding 20 times more shares. “Splits can put their stock within the reach of smaller, individual investors,” the news outlet explained.
Amazon told CNN, “This split would give our employees more flexibility in how they manage their equity in Amazon and make the share price more accessible for people looking to invest in the company.”
The Board of Directors also authorized Amazon to repurchase up to $10 billion in common stock. “The program allows the Company to repurchase its shares opportunistically from time to time when it believes that doing so would enhance long-term shareholder value,” according to the filing with the SEC. “The repurchase authorization does not have a fixed expiration.”
The buyback authorization replaces the previous $5 billion stock repurchase authorization, approved by the Board in 2016, under which Amazon had repurchased $2.12 billion of its shares.
The news came the same day Amazon is getting attention in the press for news that the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland over potential criminal conduct by the company. ABC News, which obtained the letter, wrote, “The judiciary committee, led by Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, alleges Amazon lied to Congress over whether it used data it collected from third-party sellers.”
An Amazon spokesperson told ABC News, “There’s no factual basis for this, as demonstrated in the huge volume of information we’ve provided over several years of good faith cooperation with this investigation.”
