Zuckerberg to turn multi-billionaire
Facebook's debut on Wall Street will make 27-year-old co-founder Mark
Zuckerberg a multi-billionaire with firm control of the world's leading
online social network.
After Facebook's initial public offering of stock, Zuckerberg will
own 57.3 percent of the hot Silicon Valley company in a stake valued at
more than $15 billion based on how shares are expected to perform.
"Because Zuckerberg controls a majority of our outstanding voting
power, we are a 'controlled company' under the corporate governance
rules for NASDAQ-listed companies," Facebook said in an amended filing
with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Zuckerberg will immediately sell 30.2 million shares, with a
projected value of about $1.05 billion, with the bulk of the money going
to pay taxes on 60 million shares he will be acquiring for a pittance by
exercising stock options.
Facebook employees and investors are expected to cash-out to the
overall tune of $5.5 billion by selling stock when the company begins
trading on the Nasdaq in a debut slated for May 18.
A regulatory filing calls for shares to be priced between $28 and
$35, which would set a company value below some estimates of $100
billion for the world's biggest social network. At the midpoint of the
price range, the sale of 337 million shares would generate $10.6
billion, making Facebook's offering the largest IPO of a tech firm and
one of the biggest on US soil.
"Facebook was not originally founded to be a company," Zuckerberg
said in a letter included in SEC paperwork.
"Most great people care primarily about building and being a part of
great things, but they also want to make money," he said.
"Simply put: we don't build services to make money; we make money to
build better services." A video released as part of a 'roadshow' to woo
investors featured Zuckerberg casually discussing Facebook and its
vision.
"In middle school I used search engines like Google and Yahoo! and I
just thought they were the most amazing thing," Zuckerberg said.
"The thing that seemed like it was missing was always just people,"
he continued.
"The most interesting stuff that you care about the most is actually
what's going on in the lives of your friends, or the people around you."
|