How to lose $6.7B in two days? Just ask Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is having a really tough week so far – and it’s only Tuesday.
The Facebook CEO has already lost more than $6 billion in wealth since Monday’s opening bell. The company’s stock has fallen as much as 6% over the past couple of days and is on track for one of its worst weeks since 2012.
The downfall was triggered by news that a consulting firm that had been used by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Cambridge Analytica, gathered data on more than 50 million Facebook users without permission.
While Facebook announced that it was suspending the firm after violating its company’s terms of service, Cambridge Analytica’s board announced Tuesday that it has suspended its CEO, Alexander Nix, pending a full, independent investigation.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg’s fortune has declined $6.7 billion this week, reducing his total net worth to $68.6 billion. He gave up his slot as the fourth richest person in the world to Zara clothing founder Amancio Ortega.
Zuckerberg’s pains could be far from over as shares of the social media giant continued their downward spiral through late Tuesday, falling as much as 4%.
Zuckerberg, who owns a little over 400 million shares of Facebook, already sold about 5 million shares this year and plans to sell about 35 million to 75 million more shares over the next 18 months as part of his announced effort to accelerate his philanthropic initiatives.