With notification of a planned IPO this spring the private interests of CEO Mark Zuckerberg are becoming more available for public review. Both Facebook users and investors in Syracuse who have been fascinated by the financial success of the firm are tuning into everything they can learn about how Zuckerberg is handling his finances. Well, according to a report in Bloomberg by Douglas MacMillan, Jesse Drucker and Brian Womack , "$1.67 billion in Facebook stock may be sold by Zuckerberg to cover taxes."
According to this Bloomberg report Zuckerberg may sell about $1.67 billion of Facebook Inc. stock in the company’s initial public offering in order to pay off taxes he will owe when he exercises options to buy 120 million shares. Zuckerberg will owe taxes on gains related to the award of options. Facebook said the options were granted to Zuckerberg in 2005 and expire in 2015, and he’ll sell stock to cover liabilities. It has been stated in the IPO filing for the firm “We expect that substantially all of the net proceeds Mr. Zuckerberg will receive upon such sale will be used to satisfy taxes that he will incur upon his exercise of an outstanding stock option to purchase 120,000,000 shares."
It has been projected that 27 year old Mark Zuckerberg is being positioned to become one of richest people in the world with a stake in Facebook that could be worth as much as $28.4 billion. Facebook filed on February 16 to raise as much as $5 billion in an IPO, and has been discussing a valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion. Assuming roughly 2.51 billion Facebook shares outstanding, each share may be worth about $39.79. Assuming Zuckerberg buys all 120 million shares at exercise price of 6 cents, his gains would total about $4.77 billion.
