Zuckerberg Donates Sizable Chunk of Fortune

And sells off more Facebook stock to pay his taxes
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 20, 2013 6:00 AM CST
Zuckerberg Donates Sizable Chunk of Fortune
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiles in San Francisco on Jan. 3, 2011.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

It may be true that people are a bit more generous around the holidays, but Mark Zuckerberg is taking that to a whole new level. Facebook's founder is once again making a hefty donation to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation: a block of Facebook stock worth $1 billion. He gave the foundation roughly the same amount of stock last year, but it was worth only half as much at the time. It's "by far the largest gift in our history," the foundation's CEO told the San Jose Mercury News, without providing any specifics on how the donation will be used. But it won't be the only stock to soon escape Zuckerberg's hands. CNBC reports he's selling off 41.4 million Facebook shares worth $2.3 billion ... to pay his taxes.

Last year Zuckerberg's tax bill rang in at $1 billion, but this year's tab could be closer to $2 billion, an astounding sum considering that the top 400 earners in 2009 paid a total of $16 billion. Still, even after the tax man takes his due, Zuckerberg will have plenty of cash left to roll around in. He'll still have 444.2 million Facebook shares, worth around $24 billion, which give him about 62.8% of the voting power of Facebook shareholders, down from 65.2% before the sale and donation. (More Mark Zuckerberg stories.)

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