Goal: Zuckerberg sells shares again after two years – 12/04/2023 – Market

After two years, Mark Zuckerberg returned to selling shares in Meta, owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.

He traded around 682,000 shares worth almost US$185 million in November, in addition to making donations to charities and political entities, according to data released on Wednesday (29) and compiled by Bloomberg from regulatory filings.

This is the first time that the entities that manage Zuckerberg’s fortune have sold shares since November 2021.

Meta has seen its shares rise 172% this year through the end of November, outperforming every major U.S. technology company except Nvidia, which makes chips for artificial intelligence.

The company’s appreciation helped increase Zuckerberg’s resources for activities outside of Meta, which include venture capital, scientific research and impact investing.

He has regularly sold blocks of Meta shares over the past decade, but has not traded a single share in 2022, when catastrophic quarterly results led to one of the biggest single-day share drops and Meta’s worst annual performance since its public offering. initial in 2012.

Now, Meta shares are approaching the all-time highs set in 2021, when Zuckerberg and his charitable foundation (Chan Zuckerberg) sold more than $1 billion worth of Meta shares.

The 39-year-old businessman still owns around 13% of the company, representing almost his entire fortune of US$117.7 billion, according to Bloomberg’s billionaire rankings.

Recovery of Meta shares

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, 38, have already stated that they will allocate 99% of their wealth to philanthropic causes during their lives, helping to promote equality and cure diseases. More than half of Meta’s recent share sales came from shares controlled by the foundation of the same name.

The smallest part of the sale — around US$19 million — went to Chan Zuckerberg’s legal sector. The organization has funded efforts to mobilize voters and advance immigration reform.

Earlier this year, Chan Zuckerberg committed to donating US$250 million to create a biomedical research center in Chicago, United States. It previously supported efforts to address the housing shortage in the San Francisco Bay Area in the US and made early-stage investments to train software developers in Africa.

Created in 2015, the Chan Zuckerberg foundation has net assets of around US$6.3 billion and is run by the couple, according to the latest files. Meta’s shares have risen more than 200% since they pledged eight years ago to give away the majority of their fortune.