The FINANCIAL — Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to give away 99 percent of his stock in the social network during his lifetime to advance philanthropic causes, according to Nasdaq.
The current value of the planned donation is about $45 billion, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, said in a letter to their newborn daughter.
Separately, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing that Zuckerberg has established a new entity, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, LLC, and he will control the voting and disposition of any shares held by such entity. He plans to sell or gift no more than $1 billion of Facebook stockeach year for the next three years and that he intends to retain his majority voting position in our stock for the foreseeable future.
As of on December 1, 2015, Zuckerberg beneficially owns about 4 million shares of Class A common stock and approximately 419 million shares of Class B common stock.
Zuckerberg outlined his philanthropic mission, focused on “advancing human potential and promoting equality,” in the letter to his daughter, Maxima. He will make long-term investments in areas like health and education, while working to decrease inequality and building technology to bring about change.
“For your generation to live in a better world, there is so much more our generation can do. Today your mother and I are committing to spend our lives doing our small part to help solve these challenges. I will continue to serve as Facebook’s CEO for many, many years to come, but these issues are too important to wait until you or we are older to begin this work. By starting at a young age, we hope to see compounding benefits throughout our lives,” Zuckerberg said.
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