As Facebook shares dropped around four percent to a record low on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune took a $423m hit. The 28-year-old is now worth only about $10.2bn, over $400m behind James Goodnight, co-founder of the SAS Institute, and tech’s tenth wealthiest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
This Thursday Facebook shares were 47 percent lower than their initial public offering price of $38. Zuckerberg’s personal fortune comes from his 503.6 million Facebook shares, including 60 million options that currently have an exercise price of 6 cents a share. He also has over $150m in cash and other liquid assets.
The most recent slide in share price comes a week after the social networking site announced a sharp slowdown in growth this quarter, and refused to set financial targets for the remainder of the year. In the week following the announcement shares dropped around 25 percent.
Facebook stock currently lingers at 47 percent of the original IPO price of $38 a share, as of Thursday evening. Zuckerberg is among few insiders who benefitted directly from the overambitious initial price, having cashed in $1.15bn of his personal stake. According to Facebook, this particular sale was only made to cover a tax bill Zuckerberg faces.
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, remains the richest man in technology, with a net worth of $61.8bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
