Facebook is one of the most active and well-known social media platforms in the world. Facebook originally started as Facemash in 2003, Mark Zuckerberg is the co-founder and he owns Facebook since 2004 till date.
It was solely owned by a man called Mark Zuckerberg, over time, the company went public. This means that it is not owned by a specific company or a single individual anymore but it is now owned by several people.
They are owners because they have bought some shares in the company and can participate in the day-to-day running of its affairs. This means that anyone can own Facebook, so long you have what it takes to buy shares you can be an owner.
Nevertheless, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the company is still the CEO of the company because despite being the owner. He participated in share buying and currently owns the largest share in the company. Mark Zuckerberg has a voting power of 56.9% which means he has a lot of authority compared to other shareholders and is the sole decision-maker.
Top Ten Shareholders for Facebook
Facebook has lots of shareholders who are part of the day-to-day running of the company, below is the list of top ten.
Mark Zuckerberg
The founder of the company has the largest of the shares and has sold about $1.6 billion worth of them. This makes him the largest shareholder as well as one of the world’s richest individuals on earth. In addition to being CEO, Zuckerberg is also the owner of Instagram and WhatsApp which he acquired with billions of naira.
Jim Breyer & Accel Partners
Jim Breyer is an American venture capitalist. owns roughly $11.4 Billion. Fortune magazine has named Breyer one of the 10 smartest people in technology. His smart thinking has given him success over the years. Jim Breyer plays a significant role in Facebook’s growth.
Dustin Moskovitz
Dustin is about 8 days younger than Mark Zuckerberg which makes him the youngest billionaire in the world. He was part of Facebook’s history as he founded the site with Mark back in Harvard University back in 2007. But he left Facebook in 2008 to begin what he could call his which is a photo-sharing site that now serves millions of people and generates millions of naira from Google. Dustin still has shares with Facebook worth $7.6 billion.
Yuri Milner
Yuri Milner is the founder of digital sky technologies which focuses solely on investments in the internet sector. One such investment is Facebook. He bought Facebook with $200, which has made him one of the largest shareholders in Facebook. He also makes money from other investments like Zynga games and shares from other employees.
Eduardo Saverin
Eduardo Saverin was roommates and best friends with Mark Zuckerberg and a co-founder who use to own a third of the company but after their relationship went sour. He got pushed out of the company when a group of investors got on board. After some legal issues, Eduardo finally got back on board with $5 billion.
Sean Parker
Sean Parker is an American businessman and philanthropist who was quite popular before the emergence of Facebook due to his role in co-creating the file-sharing website Napster. This didn’t end well as everyone tried to sue him nevertheless.
He was quite knowledgeable due to his experience and came in contact with Facebook when it was just 5 months old and he became the first president of Facebook. With his knowledge and wealth of experience from Napster.
He made a lot of impact on Facebook at its early stage and has about $4 billion invested in Facebook as well as other platforms. He recently invested $15 million in Spotify which happens to be a rival to his previous company, Napster.
Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel, an investor who co-founded PayPal. He had an early success on the internet with PayPal which he sold for $1.5 billion. With such good money at his disposal, he invested in Facebook at its very early stages with about $500,000 investment which of course has grown and he has about $3 billion with Facebook.
Bill Gates
Bill Gates the owner of Microsoft bought shares worth $240 million for 1.6% of Facebook. the shares he bought are now worth only 1.3%.
Chris Hughes
Chris Hughes was also a roommate to Mark Zuckerberg as well as Eduardo and Dustin. Four of them were roommates back at Harvard and it was this connection that made Chris get involved with Facebook.
He was also a co-founder of Facebook and spent three years working with Facebook before moving on to another project in 2007. Which involved working with the then-presidential candidate as he was in charge of his social media campaign with his experience in social media. He owns 1% of Facebook which equals $1 billion.
Li ka-Shing
Li Ka-Shing is a Hong Kong billionaire who invested $120 Million, which seemed so small then but is now worth $800 million which means he has 0.8% of Facebook.
The above are the top ten shareholders of Facebook. The question of who owns Facebook is an intriguing one because it doesn’t refer to one person, thus this article has shown the top ten persons (there are others) involved in Facebook ownership.
FAQs
Is Facebook Different from Meta?
Facebook and Meta are very much the same. The company simply rebranded its name to Meta because Facebook as a brand outgrew the identity that it was known for so it needed to expand. The structure of Facebook, now called Meta remains the same despite the rebranding. The meta rebrand is a name change which means nothing else.
What Does Meta Stand for?
Meta is a prefix that means beyond or to operate at another high level. However, Facebook’s new name is Meta Platforms Inc. which is a technology company that has acquired a lot of companies including WhatsApp and Instagram.
Can I buy shares on Facebook?
Yes, you can. you can purchase your shares through a broker account, below are the steps to follow:
- Select a good broker.
- Create a broker account with the broker.
- Decide your investment plan.
- Place the order and buy the number of shares you wish to buy.
- Monitor your shares all the time after purchase.
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