While many of us are concerned about how we’re going to afford next month’s rent, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t have such worries (probably never had). He is now the sixth richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. His net worth reportedly soared overnight, bringing him to a perfectly acceptable $47 billion.
Bloomberg’s data suggests that Zuckerberg has even surpassed the likes of Charles and David Koch, two billionaire moneybags notorious for their contributions to the Republican political party. Zuckerberg now more closely trails other tech entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, though he still has a long ways to go if he expects to exceed Gates’ net worth of $78 billion.
This news coincides with Facebook’s 10-percent stock surge, which resulted in sales of $5.8 billion for the quarter and $18 billion for the 2015 fiscal year in general. This hugely exceeded Wall Street’s estimates, mainly because it wasn’t expected that mobile advertisements would prove so lucrative for the social media proprietor. In fact, S&P Capital IQ analysts only predicted revenue of $5.37 billion for its Q4 2015 earnings.
While Facebook has surpassed the expectations of many, the company has still been struggling to sell stock since investors are now targeting more low-risk businesses as the world was undergoing a stock market selloff in 2015. Fortunately for Zuckerberg, Facebook’s stock bounced back just in time for its quarterly earnings report.
This news comes a little less than two months after Zuckerberg and his wife, after giving birth to their baby daughter, revealed their plans to give 99 percent of Facebook’s shares to a charity with the goal of “advancing human potential and promoting equality.” At the time, the shares were priced at a still-grandiose $45 billion.
With his wealth continuing to grow, let’s hope philanthropy is a promise Zuckerberg can keep.
