‘Focused on their children’: Mike Cannon-Brookes and wife Annie separate
By Laura Chung and Lucy Macken
Technology entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes and his fashion designer wife Annie have separated, sources close to the family have confirmed.
A source, who was not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed to this masthead that the couple – who married in 2010 – separated more than a month ago. News of the split was first reported in The Australian Financial Review on Saturday.
Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife Annie.Credit: Getty
“They’re both focused on their children as their number one priority right now,” the source said. “They ask that their privacy is respected.”
Cannon-Brookes is the co-founder and co-chief executive officer of collaboration software firm Atlassian, which was established in 2002.
A spokesperson for Atlassian declined to comment.
Cannon-Brookes had a fortune of about $19 billion this year, according to the Financial Review Rich List. The renowned environmentalist is also a part-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
His personal net wealth is built on the back of his 22 per cent stake in Atlassian, a productivity software company, co-founded with Scott Farquhar. US-listed Atlassian, valued at $US46.6 billion ($69 billion), posted a net quarterly loss of $US209 million for the quarter ending March 2023.
Mike and Annie Cannon-Brookes also own stakes in a number of Australian businesses through their investment company Grok Ventures, most notably ASX-listed utility AGL and payments company Tyro. Sydney-based Grok picked up a 11.3 per cent stake in AGL last year and has been actively pushing the company to speed up its exit from coal.
He has also amassed a large property portfolio, headlined by the purchase of Fairwater, a 1.1-hectare beachfront estate in Point Piper, in 2018 for $100 million.
The couple were yet to move into the grand 1880s sandstone residence, which was long home to the late Lady (Mary) Fairfax.
The family divide their time between Rosehill Farm, at Kangaloon in the Southern Highlands, and a historic house in Double Bay known as Verona, bought a few weeks before Fairwater for $17 million.
The Cannon-Brookes portfolio is held either in Mike’s own name or the CBC Co Pty Limited corporate entity, of which he is the sole director and owner.
While the portfolio is not in Annie’s name, she is widely tipped to have spearheaded much of the property acquisitions in both Sydney and the northern beaches.
The company attributed the purchase of Queensland’s Dunk Island to Annie Cannon-Brookes soon after they bought it last year for $27.5 million.
That is held in a corporate trust, Green Seaweed 1 Pty Ltd, controlled by Catherine Manuel, a director of the Cannon-Brookes Foundation. The trust recently added a three-bedroom house on Mission Beach for $1.1 million.
CBC Co owns almost $60 million worth of property, including the couple’s Kangaloon home and a slew of Southern Highlands farmland, the most expensive of which is a former racehorse stud that has been turned into a regenerative farm.
Of the property held in the Cannon-Brookes name, there are the Point Piper and Double Bay properties, another $12 million Southern Highlands property known as Wattle Ridge, and a recently acquired Newport beachfront house for $14.25 million that is next door to the residence built by Jen Hawkins and sold to the Cannon-Brookes family in 2020 for $24.5 million.
A couple of trusts have acquired property in Pittwater, including an $8 million estate on Scotland Island and a house on Great Mackerel Beach, although he recently bought another house on the same stretch of sand for $2.55 million.
Also on the western foreshores of Pittwater is a house at Coasters Retreat, bought for $4.65 million last year by CBC Co, which was threatened by a bushfire two weeks ago.
News of the Cannon-Brookes separation comes less than a fortnight after Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and Nicola Forrest announced they would end their marriage after 31 years. They said the decision will have no impact on their mining business or charity foundation.
“After 31 years of marriage, we have made the decision to live apart,” a statement released by the couple said.
“There is no impact on the operations, control or direction of Fortescue, Minderoo or Tattarang.”
Andrew Forrest is the founder and executive chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, the West Australian iron ore producer. Private investment company Tattarang is also owned by the couple and owns a diverse range of businesses across agri-food, energy, health technology, property, resources and lifestyle.
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