Amazon founder and chief executive officer Jeffrey Bezos has agreed to acquire the Washington Post for $250 million, the paper announced Monday.
Although not a major political donor, Bezos' donation history skews Democratic—88 percent of his donations since 1998 have been to Democrats. Bezos has donated $17,000 to political candidates during that period, with only $2,000 to Republicans.
In 2000, Bezos gave $1,000 apiece to then-Sens. Slade Gorton (Wash.), considered a liberal Republican, and Spencer Abraham (Mich.), who was later secretary of energy under President George W. Bush.
Most recently, Bezos donated $6,800 to Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) during the 2010 election cycle.
Bezos, who has been described as a libertarian, has donated a more significant amount of money to Amazon's political action committee, which gives fairly equally to Democrats and Republicans.
Bezos' largest and most notable political contribution came last summer, when he and his wife donated $2.5 million in support of a pro-same-sex-marriage referendum in Washington state. The ballot measure won approval in November.
The Post deal is limited to the paper and some of its publishing interests, of which Bezos is expected to take control in the next 60 days; he is not expected to be very involved in day-to-day operations, and will remain in Seattle.
The Post Co. will retain ownership of the Post building, Kaplan, and other assets, including Slate.com and Foreign Policy magazine; the company will change its name at a later date.