Mark Zuckerberg will face taxes of around $1.67 billion when he inevitably exercises options to buy 120 million shares in Facebook. What’s a mere multi-millionnaire to do?

Well, many pundits expect the 27-year-old CEO to sell back about $1.67 billion of Facebook Inc. stock in the company’s initial public offering to cover his tax liabilities. And even then, such a figure will be a drop in the ocean compared to the value of Zuckerberg’s overall stake in the social network, which could be worth as much as $28.4 billion.

Facebook’s IPO filing, first made on February 1, proposes a valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion, though the company attracted a valuation of at least $94 billion (about $40 a share) when it auctioned its shares on the private market this week.

The IPO filing goes on to address Zuckerberg’s tasty tax bill:

“We expect that substantially all of the net proceeds Mr. Zuckerberg will receive upon such sale will be used to satisfy taxes that he will incur upon his exercise of an outstanding stock option to purchase 120,000,000 shares.”

Incidentally, as tax rates are a hot topic right now, Zuckerberg’s tax rate will be 35 percent, according to Victor Fleischer, associate professor of law at the University of Colorado.

Businessweek got a ‘no comment’ when it approached Larry Yu, a spokesman for Facebook, yesterday.

[Via Businessweek]

Mark Zuckerberg May Cover Taxes By Selling $1.67 Billion in Facebook Stock is a post from: The Inquisitr

Everyone is talking about the recent S-1 form that Facebook just filled out on the road to being a publicly traded company.  There has been much talk about the billions of dollars that everyone is going to make off the company.  Everyone is talking about the star studded list of investors that are going to be made even richer by their investment in Facebook.

The one thing that has been overlooked on the form is a little section known as “Risks Related to Our Business and Industry.”. There are 38 listed risks to the company and a few of them are actually really comical.

One of the biggest risks to the Company is Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder who invented Facebook in his Harvard dorm room when he was 19.

Why is Zuckerberg such a threat?

The S-1 says,

That Mark Zuckerberg’s bad decision-making could lead to a decline in company value. Along with “users fleeing” and “decline in advertising revenue,” the following was listed as a major risk factor:

Our CEO has control over key decision making as a result of his control of a majority of our voting stock.

Zuckerberg owns 58 percent of Facebook stock, which means that he “has the ability to control the outcome of matters” that come before stockholders. Furthermore:

“As a stockholder, even a controlling stockholder, Mr. Zuckerberg is entitled to vote his shares, and shares over which he has voting control as a result of voting agreements, in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally.”

Should stockholders fear the man who controls the company they hold stock in?

Major Facebook Risk: Mark Zuckerberg is a post from: The Inquisitr

Question: who is Sheryl Sandberg? Answer: she’s the person many people might expect to be Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook’s highest paid employee.

The Facebook IPO has made Zuckerberg an overnight multi-millionaire, but it also revealed the fact that chief operating officer Sandberg, a 42-year-old working mother who describes herself as the ‘grown-up’ at the company, makes the most money at the social network.

In financial year 2011, Sandberg’s income was a $300,000 base salary plus $30,491,613 in Facebook shares. In addition, she has 38,122,000 restricted stock units (worth approx. $1.15 billion at $30/share) that will be completely vested by October 2020, subject to her continued employment through the vesting date. Such figures dwarf even Zuckerberg’s fortune. When the company goes public, Sandberg will be one of the wealthiest self-made women in the world.

She was lured from Google by Zuckerberg in 2008, after the entrepreneur took her to dinner twice a week for six weeks running. When finally at Facebook, her mission was simple: make Facebook profitable.

Before Sandberg’s arrival, the company was “primarily interested in building a really cool site; profits, they assumed, would follow.” Sandberg pioneered the discreet presentation of Facebook adverts and oversaw the firm’s business operations. By 2010, Facebook was turning profits in the millions.

She’s been ranked one of the 50 ‘Most Powerful Women in Business’ by Fortune magazine since 2008, became a member of the Walt Disney Company board in 2009, and joined the Board of Directors of Starbucks in 2010, a role that comes with a tidy $280,000 annual salary.

So, Mark Zuckerberg: not Facebook’s highest paid employee by a long shot. Surprised?

Meet Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Highest Paid Employee is a post from: The Inquisitr

Facebook has been around for almost 8 years now and what an amazing 8 years it has been. Growth has skyrocketed and the social network is very quickly approaching 1 Billion users, half of which who login daily.

The site launched in February 2004 and thanks to its growth out of the gate, it got the attention of companies and investors. In fact, as early as 2004, the same year Mark Zuckerberg launched the social network, he had offers to buy.

With news of the IPO happening this year and a potential $100 Billion valuation, it’s a good thing he stuck to his guns and didn’t sell. The social networking space would look vastly different from what it is today and has been a driver of innovation across other platforms.

Via ZDNet:

“Facebook has had countless offers for being bought out: an unnamed investor offered $10 million in June 2004, Friendster was interested in a purchase, Google offered to buy or partner in the summer of 2004, Viacom offered $75 million in March 2005, Myspace wanted to buy in spring 2005, News Corp (Myspace’s parent company) wanted to in January 2006, Viacom came back in 2005, NBC was also interested soon after, Viacom again made an offer of $1.5 billion in 2006, Yahoo offered $1 billion in June 2006, AOL also considered $1 billion soon after, Yahoo came back again at the end of 2006, and finally Google offered $15 billion in 2007. Instead, Microsoft bought a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook for about $240 million, giving the social network a valuation of $15 billion, in October 2007.”

As Justin Timberlake said in the movie ‘The Social Network’, “You know what’s better than a Million dollars? A Billion dollars”. Well, you know what’s even better than that? 100 Billion dollars.

If you were in the same situation as Mark Zuckerberg, would you have sold Facebook at the time?

Mark Zuckerberg Had The Chance To Sell Facebook As Early As 2004 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Today is the day that many sites across the globe are protesting SOPA and PIPA and raising awareness for people to contact their congressmen, and have them vote against the two disastrous bills. Wikipedia is one site that is taking the threat quite seriously with an entire blackout of their site.

While Facebook isn’t blacking out their social network or anything of that nature, they are raising awareness. Mark Zuckerberg posted on his personal account letting people know about the two bills, his, and Facebook’s stance on them.

Here’s what he had to say:

“The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet’s development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet.”

“The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet.”

“You can read more about our views here: https://www.facebook.com/FacebookDC?sk=app_329139750453932.”

As I write this post, his update has been liked over 200,000 times and has been shared over 40,000 times. SOPA and PIPA could very clearly affect the World’s most popular social network and it’s good to see Mark make a statement as well as how people can help ensure the bills don’t pass.

With all the support against SOPA and PIPA, do you think they could still pass?

Facebook Comes Out Strongly Against SOPA And PIPA is a post from: The Inquisitr

An Israeli Entrepreneur is betting that Facebook would not want to sue someone with the same name as their inventor and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  He is so confident of this that he is changing hi name to, you guessed it, Mark Zuckerberg.

A s reported by ZDNet.com, Israeli Businessman Rotem Guez was threatened with a lawsuit over allegations that his company had violated the terms of service of the social networking behemoth.

Guez’s response, “if you want to sue me you will have to sue Mark Zuckerberg!”.

Guez had formed a company which sell Facebook “likes”. He got people to like his client’s pages by offering them free content from his other sites, which is a clear violation of Facebook’s terms of service. Facebook had originally sent several “Cease and Desist letters threatening that if Guez didn’t halt his activities the company would be sues.  They served him with a lawsuit earlier this year.

Guez has counter sued saying Facebook has hurt his business and kicked him off for no apparent reason.

Do you think Facebook will sue Mark Zuckerberg?

Is Mark Zuckerberg Being Sued By Facebook? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Zuck’s private photos (which can be seen below) include images of him preparing food with his girlfriend, playing with his dog “Beast,” holding an “apparently” dead chicken, and handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.

The flaw, which was reportedly discovered by members of a bodybuilding forum, who went on to post step-by-step instructions on how to exploit it, allowed anyone to view a limited number of another user’s most recently uploaded photos irrespective of the privacy settings for those photos.

According to Facebook, the hole came about as a result of a recent code push, and was only live for a small period of time.

“Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm that the bug has been fixed,” Facebook said in a statement released Tuesday.

The glitch comes just one week after the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with Facebook that required the social networking giant to be more transparent about its privacy policies.

While the incident is big news for privacy advocates who have been critical of Facebook, for the rest of us it’s the chance to sneak a peek at the private life of a billionaire.

Below are a few of Mark Zuckerberg’s leaked photos, the remaining can be viewed here.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Private Photos Leaked in Facebook Security Flaw is a post from: The Inquisitr

Two years ago the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused Facebook of using “deceptive behavior” in an attempt to have site users accept privacy settings that benefited the company but left user accounts open to public scrutiny and now the federal organization is said to be nearing a deal with the world’s largest social network.

Under the settlement the FTC would be allowed to conduct privacy audits at Facebook for the next two decades in a move very similar to the agreement they reached with Google, Inc.

Under the agreement Facebook will be required to make all new features (material retroactive changes) available as opt-in rather than opt-out as they are current setup.

The FTC probe against Facebook started in December 2009 when the company made user information public by default instead of asking user permission ahead of time with an opt-in setup.

Final approval for the new guidelines are still awaiting FTC commissioners approval but the plan is expected to receive approval and move forward swiftly.

Are you happy to learn that Facebook privacy changes will be opt-in and that the FTC will be performing regular audits of the company’s policies to ensure site users are being protected?

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

FTC May Soon Require ‘Opt-In’ Privacy Policy Setup For Facebook, Routine Company Audits is a post from: The Inquisitr

The purpose of Zuck’s visit, reports the Boston Herald, is to “poach Hub engineers for his Silicon Valley social networking giant.”

“If (Zuckerberg’s) coming to Boston to recruit, it indicates how important recruiting is for Facebook and how hard it is for them to recruit talented folks by staying focused purely on Silicon Valley resources,” Adam Marcus, managing director of Boston’s OpenView Venture Partners, told the Herald. “Boston has a very deep bench when it comes to technical talent and educational institutions that produce high-quality engineering talent.”

During his Harvard return visit, Zuckerberg – accompanied by Mike Schroepfer, Facebook vice president of engineering – will meet with 200-plus computer science students at Harvard’s Farkas Hall to promote engineering jobs and internships at Facebook. Zuckerberg also will meet with Harvard president Drew Faust.

Though it’s not technically his first time back — he made an unofficial appearance in an introductory computer science class in 2005 — it is the first that Zuck has been invited back to meet with “Harvard officials.”

In addition to Harvard, Zuckerberg, 27, is also scheduled to make stops at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University on his East Coast recruiting trip.

Mark’s Harvard-return trip comes after a meeting at Standford University last weekend where the Facebook mastermind said that in hindsight he wouldn’t have left Boston for the glitz of Silicon Valley.

“If I were starting now, I would have just stayed in Boston.’’

via BH

Mark Zuckerberg Headed Back to Harvard for Facebook Recruiting Mission is a post from: The Inquisitr

Steve Jobs died today, he was 56-years-old. Following his death several of tech’s biggest names sent out their condolences including some of Jobs’ biggest competitors.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote:

“Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend,” and ”Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.”

While Microsoft founder Bill Gates released the following statement:

“Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives,” writes the former Microsoft CEO. “The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”

Also chiming in on the brilliance of Jobs was Google co-founder Larry Page who wrote:

 ”He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me.”

In an almost perfectly fitting goodbye to himself Jobs said in 2005:

 ”Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

While Steve Jobs may have passed away his spirit lives on in the minds and hearts of the world’s biggest tech titans, of course Steve would likely be more interested in seeing what technologies come next over what people thought of him, that was always the Steve Jobs way.

Fellow Tech Titans Wish Steve Jobs A Final Farewell is a post from: The Inquisitr

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was announced during Thursday’s F8 Conference the crowd was greeted not by Zuckerberg but instead by Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg who delivered a hilarious seven and a half minute speech.

Among “fake Mark’s” biggest announcements was a “slow-poke” button that can be taken back without the other person knowing it was sent within 24 hours poking and a new list called “I’m Not Really Friends With These People” which according to Samberg is perfect for storing all of those awkward friends you never talk to from middle school along with the drunk old lady you met at a charity event.

Zuckerberg also took some jabs from Samberg in relation to his dog “Beast” which has a popular Facebook page with nearly 200,000 fans.

Here’s the video in case you missed it:

I personally like the opening remark about “changing the world” which is trademark Mark Zuckerberg.

Andy Samberg Appears As Mark Zuckerberg During F8 Conference [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

While Microsoft founder Bill Gates may still be the richest person in America with $59 billion at his disposal he has one young tech star quickly grasping at his world’s richest American title thanks to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

According to recent Forbes numbers Zuckerberg has watched his personal wealth skyrocket to $17.1 billion placing him at #14 on the world’s richest people list.

By jumping up to #14 Zuckerberg now has more money than Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page who have personal wealth of $16.7 billion each. Zuckerberg is also only slightly behind Amazon founder Jeff Bezos who has brought in $19.1 billion.

While Mark is worth a lot of money on paper his company has not yet went public which means much of that cash is based off Facebook’s valuation and not cold hard cash.

Other members of the Forbes list who rank close to Zuckerberg are:

Michael Dell (#18, $15 billion), Steve Ballmer (#19, $13.9 billion), Paul Allen (#23, $13.2 billion) and Steve Jobs (#39, $7 billion).

Does it surprise you that Zuckerberg is worth so much cash? Given Facebook’s near dominance of the display advertising market and a user base of almost 800 million I can’t say his wealth surprises me, I actually think it will climb higher when Facebook’s IPO finally becomes a reality.

Mark Zuckerberg Has More Money Than Google’s Founders is a post from: The Inquisitr

Reuters is reporting that Facebook’s revenue for the first half of 2011 has doubled to $1.6 billion. Net income for the same period is placed at $500 million. They’re a privately-held company so no one can force them to confirm the report.

We can only assume, just like everyone, that much of the $1.6 billion must have come from advertising as the social network is said to be responsible for one third of Internet advertising impressions in the US alone this June. That figure is more than the combined total of Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, and AOL, according to comScore.

It should not be downplayed as well that the company gets a 30 percent cut of sales of virtual goods in social games like FarmVille.

In July this year, Kevin Ryan, the chief executive of DoubleClick, forecasted that Facebook will generate $1 billion in revenue from social gaming alone this year. It was also that same month that David Fisher, vice president of Facebook’s advertising and global operations told Businessweek that their ad business remains on the growth path:

“We have hundreds of thousands of advertisers around the world– that continues to grow. We continue to feel good about where we are. We’re constantly testing new ad formats. We’ve found, frankly, that users are getting value and advertisers getting value in putting more ads in.”

Investor’s interest on Facebook has pushed its valuation to $80 billion. Early this year, it was reported that the company is preparing for a $100 billion initial public offering (IPO). This amount could easily dwarf Google’s $23 billion IPO in 2004. We can only wait though, as again, no one’s confirming.

No One’s Confirming But Facebook’s First Half Revenue is $1.6 Billion is a post from: The Inquisitr

Facebook Director of Marketing and sister of Mark Zuckerberg, Randi Zuckerberg, is leaving the massive social network to start her own social firm, it has been revealed.

The other Zuckerberg had been out on maternity leave when she made the decision, and AllThingsD got ahold of her resignation letter. In it, she talks about her aspirations in the post-Facebook future:

“I have spent my years at Facebook pouring my heart and soul into innovating and pushing the media industry forward by introducing new concepts around live, social, participatory viewing that the media industry has since adopted. We have made incredible progress, but there is still much to be done and other ways I can affect change. Now is the perfect time for me to move outside of Facebook to build a company focused on the exciting trends underway in the media industry.”

Facebook confirmed Randi’s impending departure from the company in a brief statement:

“We can confirm Randi has decided to leave Facebook to start her own company. We are all grateful for her important service.”

Randi’s brother did not comment directly on his sister’s defection.

Zuckerberg’s Sis Randi Quits Facebook Job to Start New Company is a post from: The Inquisitr

Remember yesterday how the Winklevoss twins were going to totally stop suing Facebook and get a job or something?

Psych, Facebook! The whole end of litigation thing lasted literally less than 24 hours, and it’s assumed Cameron and Tyler decided to sleep for eight or so during that period. (Also, the getting a job thing is kind of a non-starter as the two have enough money from suing Facebook that they will never have to work, ever.) The creepy twins are going to continue their fight for more cash, but this time they’re just going at it from a different angle:

This new claim is based on a different legal argument. Last year, instant messages from Zuckerberg emerged online and in media reports that purport to shed new light on the relationship between the Facebook CEO and the Winklevoss twins… The instant messages in question were uncovered by Facebook’s legal team when it searched Zuckerberg’s computer. The trio is asking the Boston federal court to look into claims that Facebook and its lawyers hid instant messages from them during litigation. The argument is that Facebook should have disclosed those communications when the original settlement was put together.

This time, the Winklevictims have to convince the courts that the original settlement should be overturned ‘and’ that Facebook’s legal team violated discovery procedures in suppressing the allegedly incriminating IMs. Given the fact the courts have told the Winklevoss twins in legally binding documents to STFU and get lost already, it does not look likely that outcome will occur.

Winklevoss Twins Cannot Quit Suing Facebook is a post from: The Inquisitr

In 2008 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, more commonly referred to as the Winklevoss Twins, a check for $200 million after they claimed Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from their ConnectU platform which he was hired to work on during his time at Harvard University, a settlement that we thought would end the dispute, fast forward three years later and the brothers have dropped their second lawsuit which was filed in May 2011.

In their newest lawsuit the brothers claimed that Zuckerberg and his Facebook team in 2008 highly undervalued the worth of the company, leaving money on the table that the brothers had hoped to collect.

After fighting for more cash the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals noted:

“At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached.”

Not willing to take no for an answer the brothers soon afterwards filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court before deciding to finally drop their fight with Facebook.

Winklevoss Twins Drop Lawsuit Against Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is a post from: The Inquisitr

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be featured on the June cover of Mad Magazine next to Alfred E. Neumann, the magazines mascot.

In the issue you’ll be able to read the “50 Worst Things About Facebook” which in my opinion would just be a list of privacy setting instructions. Although I like #26 which the cover states is “Friend Requests from Idiots!”

What do you think of Mad Magazine’s take on Zuckerberg?

Mark Zuckerberg ‘Mad Magazine’ Cover Debuts is a post from: The Inquisitr

I had a friendly bet with a friend of mine that I made on a podcast that we do that the rumor about Mark Zuckerberg showing up on the this weekend’s Saturday Night Live that was hosted by Jesse Eisenberg, who played Zuckerberg in The Social Network movie, would turn out to be true.

My friend, Sean P. Aune didn’t think it would happen. Turns out I’m the one with the extra $5 in my PayPal account after tonight’s SNL show.

Here is the skit starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andy Sandburg, and Mark Zuckerberg.

via Mediate/NBC

Will the real Mark Zuckerberg poke the others – Zuckerberg on SNL is a post from: The Inquisitr

Seriously, it’s almost like Skynet is just around the corner and Zuckerbaby has been hired as it’s PR person.

The most plastic looking Person of the Year from Time yet is a post from: The Inquisitr

60 Minutes got gamed.

Last night Duncan posted the interview that Leslie Stahl from 60 Minutes did with Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of Facebook, and I really hope that CBS got paid well for being a PR shill. Oh, and my previous comment about keep Leslie Stahl away from tech stories still stands.

After watching the interview with Zuckerberg from start to finish I will agree with Kara Swisher who said; in the 60 Minutes piece, that Mark Zuckerberg is no longer a toddler CEO. This of course is in sharp contrast to his previous interview by Stahl on 60 Minutes three years ago, a time period which not even other multi-national CEOs or heads of state are granted by  the news magazine show.

As Andrew Wallenstein at paidContent pointed out in his post about the non-interview Zuckerberg has indeed mastered the time honored CEO ability to appear to be answering question but when looked at closely they have really said nothing.

Zuckerberg has mastered the non-answer. The few times Stahl tried to draw blood, she was easily deflected. Whenever the questions got tough, whether on Facebook’s approach to privacy issues or its supposed ambition to “own” the internet, Zuckerberg always gave a pat answer that didn’t seem evasive but didn’t quite tackle the matter at hand, either. “Piracy is one of the most fundamental issues facing the internet,” he responded to Stahl at one point, signifying…what?

So after all is said and done what exactly did we get from a 40 minute commercial starring Zuckerberg and Stahl?

Nada.

What did Facebook get out of the joke that they pulled on CBS?

Well they got to show a very large demographic of older CBS, and 60 Minutes, watchers a grown up, and well tutored, Mark Zuckerberg who wants to be their best friend and they don’t have to worry about their kiddies sharing their lives on Facebook.

Oh, and they got to show off what is nothing more than a cosmetic change to Facebook.

Well played Zuckerbaby, 26 years old and you’ve gamed one of the stalwarts of old media.

Facebook, Zuckerberg and 60 Minutes: Excuse me while I gag is a post from: The Inquisitr