Tags: facebook | investor | peter | thiel | stake

Facebook Investor Peter Thiel Sells Rest of His Remaining Stake

Facebook Investor Peter Thiel Sells Rest of His Remaining Stake
Peter Thiel (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 01:31 PM EST

Facebook Inc.’s first major investor Peter Thiel has sold three-quarters of his remaining stake in the social network as part of a previously established trading plan, a regulatory filing showed.

Thiel, who is a member of Facebook’s board had already sold more than $1 billion worth of its stock before the filing made on Tuesday.

It said he had sold another 160,805 shares for about $29 million, leaving his holdings at 59,913 Class A shares in the company. bit.ly/2zd34za

The only major name in Silicon Valley to back President Donald Trump, some have called for Thiel’s removal from Facebook’s board. Chief Executive and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has said he should stay, citing the importance of diversity of opinion at the company.

A Facebook representative called Thiel’s sales routine and said there was nothing new to say about the billionaire’ s seat on the company’s board.

Representatives for the venture capitalist could not immediately be reached for comment.

Thiel co-founded payment service PayPal and is known for funding the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that led to the shutdown of online news site Gawker. He became a Facebook investor in 2004 with an initial investment of $500,000 at a $5 million valuation.

When Zuckerberg took the company public in 2012, Thiel sold 16.8 million shares at the IPO for about $640 million. Later the same year, he sold roughly 20 million of his remaining 26 million shares for $400 million after the expiry of a lockup.

He hit the market once again in 2016 to sell a little less than 1 million shares for about $100 million.

Facebook shares were down 0.7 percent at $180.59 on Wednesday.

© 2026 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.


StreetTalk
Facebook Inc.'s first major investor Peter Thiel has sold three-quarters of his remaining stake in the social network as part of a previously established trading plan, a regulatory filing showed.
facebook, investor, peter, thiel, stake
274
2017-31-22
Wednesday, 22 November 2017 01:31 PM
Newsmax Media, Inc.

Sign up for Newsmax’s Daily Newsletter

Receive breaking news and original analysis - sent right to your inbox.

(Optional for Local News)
Privacy: We never share your email address.
Join the Newsmax Community
Read and Post Comments
Please review Community Guidelines before posting a comment.
 
Get Newsmax Text Alerts
TOP

Newsmax, Moneynews, Newsmax Health, and Independent. American. are registered trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc. Newsmax TV, and Newsmax World are trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc.

NEWSMAX.COM
MONEYNEWS.COM
© Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
NEWSMAX.COM
MONEYNEWS.COM
© Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved