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Someday, they may look back on the Facebook IPO as
being the catalyst for radical change on Wall Street, some of which is aimed
at attracting retail investors back into the stock market, however, about the
only solace available today for those enamored with the social media stock
(that has now plunged almost 25 percent since it was foisted upon its users
about ten days ago) is word that CEO Mark Zuckerberg
is no longer one of the world’s top 40 richest people as detailed in
this story
at the LA Times.
Well, that didn’t take long.
Less than two weeks after Bloomberg’s
Billionaire Index declared Mark Zuckerberg the 29th
richest person on Earth, the Facebook founder has fallen off the list
entirely.
Bloomberg’s index measures only the wealth of
the top 40 richest people in the world, and as of now, Zuckerberg
is $800,000 behind the current No. 40 on the list — Luis Carlos
Sarmiento, a septuagenarian who controls more than a quarter of
Columbia’s financial industry.
Of course, no one is suggesting you feel bad for the
28-year-old newlywed — as of Tuesday his estimated net worth was still
a whopping $14.7 billion, according to Bloomberg. But on the other hand, the
guy did lose $4.7 billion in just 11 days — at least on paper.
(Could this be why he skimped on tipping a waiter in
Rome?)
Zuckerberg’s net
worth reached a peak of $19.4 billion on May 18, the first day of the
Facebook IPO, when shares of the company closed at $38.23.
By Tuesday, Facebook shares had dropped to just
$28.84 a share, and Zuckerberg’s fortune was
down to $14.7 billion.
Zuckerberg did
unload 30.2 million shares at $37.58 a piece on the first day of the IPO,
bringing him a cool $1.1 billion, but he was planning to use most of it to
cover taxes, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
He still owns 503.6 million shares of the company.
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