Business

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Sells Off $2.3B In Shares

Facebook is selling 70 million shares, most of which will come from CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Sells Off $2.3B In Shares
Flickr / Raphael Rabbe
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According to a filing Thursday, Facebook's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will sell 41 million shares of his Facebook stock as part of the company's offering of 70 million shares.

"By the way, in case you're calculating, that comes out to about $2.3 billion. Facebook is saying it expects Zuckerberg to use most of the money to satisfy tax requirements from another tax move." (Via Al Jazeera)

Reasoning TechCruch says is pretty routine, especially if Facebook is looking to acquire new talent or companies. Remember, the company recently made a $3 billion offer for photo-sharing app Snapchat. (Via The Wall Street Journal

The move will drop Zuckerberg's voting power from 65.2 percent to 62.8 percent. But it's probably still good news for Facebook, which is set to join the S&P 500 Friday. One analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald talked to CNBC. (Via Flickr / Kris Krug

"I think it's a great timing. So if you do the math, the dilution from this offering is actually around 1 percent, which we think management should have no problem investing that money to generate returns of over 1 percent." 

After its initial public offering, Facebook shares plummeted. But they've doubled during the past year, closing Wednesday at more than $55 a share — showing just how far the social media giant has come since going public. 

A senior analyst at Pivotal Research told The Financial Times, "That they can sell so many shares into the market and that it will be viewed as a relatively benign event, shows how far the company has come in the minds of investors."

But of course its stock isn't the only thing Facebook is making headlines for. It recently made another change to its advertising strategy.

"Facebook is testing video adverts on some of its U.S. users. ... The advert is a teaser for the upcoming sci-fi film 'Divergent.' It'll start playing automatically as users scroll through their newsfeed." (Via BBC)

Users might not like the new ads, but investors are probably just fine with them.