This article is more than 1 year old

Zuckerberg loses $8bn in Facebook IPO fiasco

Wee lad's Forbes 400 booty ranking mercilessly keelhauled

File this under "Problems you'll never have": Facebook headman Mark Zuckerberg lost over $8bn of his net worth due to his company's wretched IPO.

This news comes from The Forbes 400, that magazine's annual list of the 400 richest Americans. This year, Zuckerberg sank from 2011's ranking of 14th on the list with a net worth of $17.5bn all the way down to number 36.

Still and all, don't shed a tear for the 28-year-old cofounder, chairman, and CEO of the world's biggest social-networking website – his net worth still totals $9.4bn, according to Forbes.

Facebook launched its initial public offering on the NASDAQ exchange this May amidst great hoopla, but instead of rising into the stratosphere, as expected by some, the share price immediately slipped below its $45 opening.

The share price has stayed below the IPO level ever since, dropping as low as $17.55 earlier this month. As we click the "Publish" button on this article at 11am Pacific time on Wednesday, the share price has recovered somewhat to $22.61 – but that's only pennies over half of Facebook's IPO price.

Still, $9.4bn is far from chump change. As Forbes notes, "The drop isn't likely to change the hoodie-wearing CEO's lifestyle much."

The other tech billionaires on Forbes list? Well, Bill Gates still leads the pack as he has for the past 19 years, with a net worth of $66bn despite having given away $28bn – so far.

Larry Ellison's $41bn earns him third place, a mere $5bn behind the number two richest man in America, Warren Buffet. Amazon's Jeff Bezos' $23.2bn just misses the top ten – he's number 11, right behind New York mayor Michael Boomberg's $25bn.

Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin tie for 13th with $20.3bn each, Steve Ballmer's $15.9bn slots him in at 19th on the list, with Michael Dell close behind in 22nd place with $14.6bn.

Not only must Zuckerberg suffer the indignity of being the billionaire who sank farther in 2012 than anyone else, he also must share 36th place with a man who could be argued to be one of the more unsavory characters among The Forbes 400: Rupert Murdoch.

Zuckerberg, however, can console himself that his fate is not as socially awkward as some others' – Zynga's Mark Pincus and Groupon's Eric Lefkofsky dropped off the list entirely. ®

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like