WhatsApp founder sells and gives away more than $5b of Facebook stock
Main page News, Tech, Shares

WhatsApp founder and CEO Jan Koum has sold and given away more than $5 billion worth of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) stock, according to his Security and Exchange Commission filings.

Mr Koum, who sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $19 billion in 2014, has offloaded around 43 million Facebook shares over the past year.

The bulk of the shares were sold in more than 120 transactions since April 1 last year, bringing him more than $3.7 billion.

'WhatsApp to launch P2P payment service in India'

Mr Koum also gifted around 12.6 million shares but the filings did not reveal who the lucky recipient, or recipients were.

The combined moves have taken Mr Koum's ownership of Facebook's Class A common stock from 2.6 percent last year to just 1.2 percent, according to the company's annual proxy statement.

Executives selling stock is common practice, given that shares often represent a large portion of their remuneration but the pace of Mr Koum's selloff is somewhat unusual.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also dumped a lot of his Facebook stock last year. Around $1 billion worth, which was used to fund his philanthropic activities.

Facebook 'to unveil secretive hardware group next month'

Recode

Read also:
Please describe the error
Close