14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook, its founder Mark Zuckerberg and board member Marc Andreessen are collectively selling 70 million Class A common shares in a $4 billion (€2.93 billion) offering.
According to the filing, Zuckerberg is the one that’s selling most of the stockpile, namely about 41.4 million, which are worth $2.3 billion (€1.68 billion). Facebook is selling another 27 million shares, while Andreessen is only parting ways with 1.65 million shares.
The money obtained from the sale will be used for working capital, as well as other general corporate purposes, although there are no specific plans mentioned in the company’s latest SEC filing.
“We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of Class A common stock by the selling stockholders. In connection with this offering, Mark Zuckerberg, our Chairman and CEO, will exercise, in full, an outstanding stock option to purchase 60,000,000 shares of Class B common stock and will then offer 41,350,000 of those shares as Class A common stock in this offering. We expect that the majority of the net proceeds Mr. Zuckerberg will receive upon such sale will be used to satisfy taxes that he will incur in connection with the option exercise,” the filing reads.
Facebook’s shares closed at $55.57 (€40.69) yesterday, but they opened a little lower today, namely at $54.41 (39.84). However, the price is expected to rise given how markets usually react to such news coming from companies.
Despite the huge number of shares that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, is selling, the sale is only putting a small dent in his voting power in the company. Ahead of the sale, Zuck held 58.8 percent of the company’s shares, but this will drop to 56.1 percent.
Facebook went public in May 2012 and has since recovered from the disastrous price drop of the first few days following the IPO.