Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is selling 70 million Class A common stock including 41,350,000 shares offered by its CEO Mark Zuckerberg and 1,645,239 shares offered by the Andreesen Living Trust based on its regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The social network giant is offering 27,004,761 shares, and it will use the proceeds from the stock offering for working capital, and other general corporate purposes. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) also indicated that it may use some of the proceeds for acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies, and other assets.
Based on the regulatory filing, Zuckerberg will exercise a stock option to purchase 60 million shares of Class B common stock. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) expected that Zuckerberg will use majority of the net proceeds he will receive from selling his shares to satisfy taxes he will incur related with the option exercise.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) also indicated that Zuckerberg intends to gift or donate approximately 18 million shares of Class B common stock this December. Those shares will be converted to Class A common stock. Last year, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla donated the same amount of shares to a foundation in Silicon Valley. Zuckerberg still owns more than 496.9 million shares or 62.8% voting power after the offering.
The Forbes magazine estimated that Zuckerberg’s net worth was approximately $19 billion as of September 30. He is the 25th richest person in the United States and 66th wealthiest worldwide.
According to the spokesperson of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), the company initiated a secondary offering of its stock to take advantage of high demand from funds tracking the S&P 500 Index. The social network giant will be included in the S&P 500 Index on December 20.
The book runners of the social network giant’s stock offering include J.P. Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Barclays.
The shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) were trading around $55.05 per share, down by 0.94% on Thursday.
