The social media giant Facebook has come a long way since its launch in 2004. But only a few people know the timeline of Facebook’s ownership and the people who own Facebook. In this blog post, we will look at the key players and events that have shaped the ownership of Facebook over the years.
1. Mark Zuckerberg
In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook for Harvard University students so they could connect and get to know each other. When Facebook was made available to the public, it became so famous that nearly half of the world had accounts on this platform.
In the list of the people who own Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is the longest-serving CEO of Facebook and now holds 13% shares. It may not seem like much, but these shares value around $71 billion.
Also, Mark Zuckerberg, the chairman and CEO of Facebook is the controlling shareholder. It means he influences decide who can keep the shares or not. So it gives him immense power to influence the decisions in the company as well.
2. Eduardo Saverin
In the names of people who own Facebook, Eduardo Saverin was also a co-founder of Facebook. He owned 33% shares initially, but due to lawsuits against Mark Zuckerberg and eventually selling his stakes in the company, he now has shares worth $5 billion. Eduardo Saverin has now become an investor in many startups in Asia.
3. Accel Partners
Jim Breyer is a venture capitalist who was listed among the top 10 intelligent people in technology by Fortune Magazine in 2010 and is one of the people who owns Facebook. He invested in Facebook at the very start of its launch.
He owns 11.4% of the Facebook shares through his company Accel Partners. This 11.4% of shares equals around $11.4 billion.
4. Winklevoss Twins
Ever since its launch, Facebook has been the target of many controversies, one of which involves the Winklevoss twins. According to twins and another person Divya Narendra, Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook and filed a lawsuit against him in 2004.
They were building the app HarvadConnection.com (now called ConnectU) for social connection between Harvard students (that was also Facebook’s purpose).
They claimed that Zuckerberg pretended to help them through the project and stole their idea. It was a four-year-long lawsuit that concluded with Facebook paying $1.2 million to each accuser.
5. Zuckerberg; 28.4% Owner of the Facebook
In 2012, Mark Zuckerberg exercised an outstanding stock option to purchase 60 million shares of Class B common stock of Facebook. He was able to give away his current stock while maintaining company control.
It also increased his ownership stake to 28.4%, as the total number of Class B common stock shares increased from 488 million to 548 million.
It was done to satisfy the taxes he would incur upon exercising his stock option.
6. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced in December 2015 that they would donate 99% of their Facebook shares, worth about $45 billion, to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization they co-founded. The Initiative is structured as a limited liability company (LLC), allowing them to have more control over how the money is used.
Zuckerberg also committed to donating up to $1 billion a year in Facebook stock for the first three years. In addition, in August 2016, Zuckerberg sold a chunk of his shares in the social networking company, worth about $95 million, for charity. He used this money to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
7. Facebook Announced Stocks for Public
On May 18, 2012, Facebook stocks were available for the public to purchase at $38 through IPO. Now anyone can purchase a Facebook share from the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Conclusion
The actions of a few key players, including the co-founders and early investors mark the timeline of Facebook’s ownership. Today, Facebook is a publicly traded company; anyone can own a piece of it through stock ownership.
The story of people who own Facebook is fascinating and shows how a small startup can grow into one of the world’s largest and most valuable companies.
