Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will sell between 35 and 75 million of his shares over the next 18 months. At its current stock price, the sale would be worth between $6 billion and $12.8 billion.
Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Friday that proceeds of the sale will go to fund his and wife Priscilla Chan’s “work in education, science, and advocacy.” He noted that the new plans did not deter him and Chan from their pledge to give away 99% of their Facebook shares over their lifetime.
Facebook also announced that it would nix its current plan to reclassify its stock to allow Zuckerberg to keep control even after selling off shares.
“Over the past year and a half, Facebook’s business has performed well and the value of our stock has grown to the point that I can fully fund our philanthropy and retain voting control of Facebook for 20 years or more,” Zuckerberg said in the post. “As a result, I’ve asked our board to withdraw the proposal to reclassify our stock — and the board has agreed.”