Facebook said Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of the company, will sell his shares worth around $2.3 billion, which will be used to pay taxes and contribution to charity.
Facebook has released an official statement confirming that the company will sell 70 million Class A shares to the public, of which 41.35 million shares belong to Zuckerberg. The 29-year old CEO of the company will use most of the proceeds from the his sale of Class A shares to pay taxes, which he will incur in exercising an option to buy 60 million Class B shares. Zuckerberg will also donate 18 million shares worth around $990 million to charity before the end of this year. The $990 million will go to Zuckerberg's own charitable foundation, the Silicon Valley Community foundation, and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Science.
"Facebook expects that the majority of the net proceeds Mr. Zuckerberg will receive upon the sale of shares in the offering will be used to satisfy taxes that he will incur in connection with his exercise, in full, of an outstanding stock option to purchase 60,000,000 shares of Class B common stock," per a statement released by Facebook.
Each Class A share gives the shareholder one vote, while each Class B share gives the shareholder 10 votes. Zuckerber's sale of Class A share and purchase of Class B shares will see him control about 63 percent of the company's voting power, down from around 65 percent.
The sale of around 27 million shares from the company is worth about $1.5 billion.
"We do not currently have any specific uses of the net proceeds planned," per Facebook's statement. "We may use a portion of the proceeds to us for acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets."
Facebook went public in May 2012 and will join the S&P 500 index of the country's top companies after trading closes on Friday, December 20.
The company's shares closed at $55.05 on Thursday, December 19, on the NASDAQ. On Friday, the shares were trading down 0.36 percent at $54.85 during afternoon session.
