MacKenzie Bezos joins Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge

Just weeks after revealing details of the divorce settlement that will make her the third richest woman in the world (by Forbes' estimation), MacKenzie Bezos has joined the "Giving Pledge," co-founded by Warren Buffett along with Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010.

Under the terms of her agreement with Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Bezos will leave her marriage with a 4% stake in the company (25% of the couple's stock), currently worth just under $35 billion.

By signing onto the "Giving Pledge," she commits "more than half of (her) wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes either during (her) lifetime or in (her) will." 

In her pledge letter, she wrote:

"In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty."

She didn't, however, indicate what area of philanthropy she intends to explore or how she will structure her giving. (Inside Philanthropy offered advice on how to avoid "the seven mistakes that new billionaire philanthropists make.") 

Jeff Bezos tweeted that she "is going to be amazing and thoughtful and effective at philanthropy, and I’m proud of her. Her letter is so beautiful. Go get ‘em MacKenzie."

Even after Ms. Bezos gets the Amazon shares, Mr. Bezos will remain the richest person in the world (ahead of Bill Gates) with an estimated wealth of around $114 billion.

And as part of the deal, he retains voting rights for her stock until she sells it in the open market or donates it to a charitable group with the understanding it will be sold in the open market.

So far, Mr. Bezos has not joined the "Giving Pledge," but last September he and Ms. Bezos created a $2 billion "Day One Fund" to help homeless families and create preschools.

Among those who have signed the pledge recently: hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones and, despite Buffett's disdain for cryptocurrencies as an investment, bitcoin magnate Ben Delo. 

Icahn targets Oxy board over Buffett-backed Anadarko acquisition

Activist investor Carl Icahn accuses Occidental Petroleum's board and management of making "numerous blunders" in the company's "fundamentally misguided and hugely overpriced" $38 billion deal to buy Anadarko Petroleum by outbidding Chevron.

In a lawsuit filed yesterday, Icahn says the people in charge at Occidental "are in far over their heads ... and might continue to trip over their feet if the board is not strengthened." He is threatening to call a special shareholder meeting to replace directors.

Among other things, Icahn and some other big OXY holders aren't happy the company fueled its winning bid with a $10 billion loan (in the form of preferred stock) from Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway at the way-above-market interest rate of 8%.

Buffett lunch charity auction heads to record price above $4 million

Bidding for the opportunity to have lunch with Warren Buffett has topped $4 million, on pace for a record high price tag when the 20th annual edition of a charity auction closes tonight at 10:30 PM ET. The previous high was $3,456,789 in 2016. 

All proceeds go to GLIDE, a San Francisco organization that works to "break the cycles of poverty."

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares closed at $297,060 Friday, down 9.4% over the previous four weeks, and up 3.4% from one year ago.

Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares closed at $197.42, down 9.7% over the previous four weeks, and up 3.1% from one year ago.

The benchmark S&P 500 index closed at 2752.06, down 6.6% over the previous four weeks, and up 1.7% from one year ago.

BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS 

Berkshire's top stock holdings by market value, based on today's closing prices. The number of shares held is as of March 31, 2019, as disclosed in the company's May 15 13F SEC filing.

USG Corporation (USG) was listed in the 13-F filing (39,002,016 shares) but is not included in this table because the stock is no longer trading following the April completion of the company's acquisition by Knauf.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

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