Texas investors may have heard that Sergei Brin, the co-founder of Google, has officially divorced his wife of eight years. A judge in Santa Clara County approved the divorce settlement in May 2015. The couple first separated in 2013 and, around that time, Brin was having an affair with an employee who worked in the Google Glass division.
The couple continues to live close to each other and are raising their two children in a cooperative fashion. It was reported that Brin and his ex-wife had a prenuptial agreement in place, which means that the divorce shouldn’t impact Google significantly. Brin is estimated to have a net worth of $30 billion. His former wife is the founder and CEO of a human genome startup, and Google was an early investor in the company.
When a couple files for divorce, property division can be handled in one of a few ways. The couple could have a prenuptial agreement that determines which party is entitled to property such as a marital home or money in a retirement account. Such an agreement may also determine who pays marital debts and whether either party is entitled to spousal support and for how long that support will be paid.
Couples may also decide to come to a divorce settlement agreement on their own with the help of their respective attorneys. If no agreement preexists and negotiations ultimately become fruitless, it will likely be necessary to litigate the matter in court, with the judge making the final decision. As is the case in California, Texas is a community property state, and thus in general, assets acquired by the couple during their marriage are deemed to be jointly owned.
Source: Business Insider, “Google founder Sergey Brin and wife Anne Wojcicki have gotten divorced”, Alyson Shontell, June 23, 2015