It was in the S-1 filing, so it's not new news:<p><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebooks-zuckerberg-thiel-sell-shares-2012-05-22" rel="nofollow">http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebooks-zuckerberg-thiel-...</a>
You know what's cool? 1.134916 billion dollars.<p>Hey, who else has finances that look like this?<p><pre><code> Mark Zuckerberg, Trustee of The Mark Zuckerberg 2008 Annuity Trust dated March 13, 2008</code></pre>
I believe most of that was sold specifically to pay the taxes he owed. Not all of his holdings were just subject to long term capital gains (deferred until realization). Some were some kind of RSU or option like deal which were taxable at the IPO.
On the day of the transaction, the stock was trading around 32 with the day high at 33.57 -- how was he able to offload half of a trading days volume at such a premium?
Good for him. Will he be as driven and as emotionally invested in his product as he used to be now that he's officially a billionaire? Just got married, maybe kids on the way soon, and he's got the means to lead a much more comfortable life... will Facebook slide down on his priority list?
In my opinion, Mark Zuckerberg's decision is a prudent and rational one. He is diversifying a heck of a lot of exposure away from a stock that is now at the mercy of the public equity markets. Besides, in relative terms, he is still retaining the vast majority of his wealth tied to Facebook stock.<p>His performance as a CEO is essential to ensuring solid performance for the company, but the stock price - like every other public share - is now at the mercy of macro variables that affect the performance of the equity markets as a whole...<p>Mark Zuckerberg is being prudent in diversifying a fraction of his exposure away not just from FB, but also from the asset class and perhaps even the currency / country.<p>C'mon, is anyone here willing to admit that they would not cash-out a small fraction of $18 bn tied to a single stock if you had the ability to do so??
ya see, this is what I don't get about capitalism sometimes.<p>I mean what do you do with such an astronomical figure of money like that as an individual ?
Selling off significant amounts of stock, for tax purposes, in the company you work for is not something one typically does _before the company has even gone public_.<p>Insiders were dumping their stock in the days leading up to the IPO.<p>What does that say about their perceived value of the company over the long-term?<p>Nothing, of course. Yes, that makes perfect sense.
30200000 * 37.58 = $1,134,916,000.00<p>Didn't Mark spend 1 Billion on the Instagram acquisition?<p>Did he pay them off with equity? Why did he spend so much on instagram?
Is he still the majority shareholder?
Does this make him accountable to the board, now?
Maybe he did it both for the $, and as a show of goodwill toward the board, after that whole "Kiss my butt, we're buying Instagram" thing.
Right decision, FB shares low for today was 31$ now 32.
One news from him that he bought this shares at 31, and market will go up. Than sell again at 45 :)<p>He wants to become a stock trader :D
This is really strange.<p>Such a move should be prepared carefully and when executed then immediately explained with a press release.<p>Mark doesn't believe in FB.