Mark Zuckerberg stands to gain $28 billion or more from Facebook's upcoming IPO, according to the Wall Street Journal. The 27-year-old founder of Facebook has been consolidating his power base as well. He currently owns about 28 percent of the company and is its largest shareholder.
The $28 billion figure assumes a company value of $100 billion, which is guessed to be at the top end of the range. Zuckerberg might end up with as little as $21 billion from the transaction.
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Even $28 billion would still put him in ninth place on Forbes magazine's list of rich people, behind Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Of course, Gates has been at it longer, and has been giving away a lot of money lately as a philanthropist.
Zuckerberg got started on philanthropy earlier in his career than Gates, however. He's pledged $100 million for public schools in Newark, N.J., according to WSJ's Geoffrey A. Fowler, and has further pledged to give away most of his money, eventually.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg has decided to take only a dollar a year as his base salary beginning in 2013. His salary had been $500,000, with a bonus of up to 45 percent, according to Fox News. That could get him an extra $225,000 this year, which would drop to 45 cents if all goes according to plan.
His compensation last year was $1.49 million, all told.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg may be ensuring that he will remain chairman for life, muses WSJ's Total Return blog. The Facebook shares that the public will be able to buy will bring only limited voting rights to their owners.
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