The net worth of Mark Zuckerberg increased by over 29 billion dollars between morning coffee and lunch break two days ago.
The founder and CEO of Meta, who is already worth over 140 billion dollars, according to Bloomberg’s billionaire index, benefited greatly from a jump in Meta’s stock price after the company announced its first cash dividend program.
Meta’s shares jumped over 21% on the news of a quarterly dividend of 0.50 dollars per share to be paid on March 26th.
According to the United States (U.S.) Securities and Exchange Commission, Zuckerberg owns around 350 million shares of the company.
Unless he sells or acquires more company shares, and assuming the quarterly dividend remains at the same level, Zuckerberg will also receive dividend payments from the company totaling approximately 700 million dollars annually.
While dividends excite shareholders as they reward investors merely for holding shares, they are also widely criticized for artificially inflating the stock price without spending on employees or improving the underlying business.
This rise points to potential damage to Meta’s shares after Zuckerberg, along with other social media executives, testified on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the risks their products pose to young people.
Zuckerberg faced pressure from internal Meta documents suggesting that the company values the lifetime of a teenager at 270 dollars, as well as Meta’s transparency regarding how it monetizes user data.
He apologized to parents present, saying their children are victims of social media.
“I’m sorry for everything you all have been through. No one should have to go through what your families have gone through, and that’s why we’re investing so much, we’ll continue to invest in the entire industry to make sure that no one has to go through what your families have had to go through.”, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
