technology

The Richest of Facebook’s Filthy Rich IPO Winners

A Facebook logo is seen through the windows of the NASDAQ stock exchange as people walk by on Times Square in New York, May 17, 2012. Facebook is set to go public on May 18, 2012 and is likely to have an estimated market valuation of over 100 billion USD when its shares begin trading on the NASDAQ.
Photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Based on the opening IPO price of $38 per share, as has already been rubbed in your poor face today, Mark Zuckerberg almost instantly becomes $19 billion richer. As the stock fluctuates, that number swings in increments larger than the net worth of some small countries — as of 2 p.m., his 533,801,850 shares were up about 7 percent to over $40 each, bring that total to almost $22 billion. He’s not alone, although let us be perfectly clear: Your average E*Trader is not cashing in on today’s festivities. Zuckerberg’s early investors on the other hand 

Take, for example, those making the most after Zuck: youngs like 27-year-old co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, whose 7.5 percent stake in the company is now worth over $5 billion, or more than $185 million for every year he’s been alive. Thirty-year-old tax genius Eduardo Saverin is nearing $2 billion, while Napster dude Sean Parker, 33, is up closer to $3 billion. (Update: Elevation Partners, whose shares are worth more than $1.5 billion now, counts Bono among its investment team. Of course.) The Guardian has a full list that, as of this afternoon, also includes:

Facebook Director Peter Thiel: $1.35 billion

Facebook COO and ex-Googler Sheryl Sandberg: $77.9 million

Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus: $217.87 million

I know, right? In case you’re not nauseous enough yet, there are companies winning too: Goldman Sachs stands to make $1.25 billion and Microsoft almost $300 million. Some of the lesser known faces and their big-dollar wins can be seen in this pretty chart, from the Facebook issue of New York. Now go invent something, or get to drinking.

The Richest of Facebook’s Filthy Rich Winners