Zuckerberg to sell FB shares worth $12.8 bn for philanthropy

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook announced he'll be selling around 75 million Facebook shares in 18 months, which are currently valued at $12.8 billion, to fund his philanthropic initiatives. He also asked the Facebook board to drop his earlier proposal of creating a new class of shares that would let him fund his initiatives and retain Facebook's voting control.

Instead, Zuckerberg says that because Facebook has become so valuable, he can sell a smaller allotment of his stake in the company to deliver plenty of capital to his Chan Zuckerberg Initiative foundation that aims to help eradicate disease and deliver personalized education to all children.

Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission and over the past year and a half,Facebook’s business has performed well and the value of our stock has grown to the point that I can fully fund our philanthropy and retain voting control of Facebook for 20 years or more,” Zuckerberg addresses. Facebook’s share price has increased roughly 45 percent, from $117 to $170, since the Class C stock plan was announced, with Facebook now valued at $495 billion.

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