Facebook's regulatory filings reveal that CEO Mark Zuckerberg harvested $3.3 billion by exercising stock options last year, which some joked should make up for his $1 salary.
Slate reported that Zuckerberg reaped $2.3 billion off stock options in 2012, and that his total net worth places him as the 22nd richest person in the world according to The Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Even though he's sold and given much of it away, Zuckerberg, 29, still owns 426.3 million Facebook shares, worth roughly $25.7 billion. Although it had a shaky IPO in mid-2012, the stock has more than doubled in the past year as Facebook successfully tackled the mobile and tablet landscapes.
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He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have donated a lot of their money to charity over the last few years, and the
Chronicle of Philanthropy even recognized them as the most generous donors of the year for their 18 million-share donation — valued at $1 billion — to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
The news of the windfall comes on the heels of several news stories about the founder and his company.
This week a judge threw out Paul Ceglia's lawsuit against Zuckerberg after determining that the 2003 contract that allegedly entitled Ceglia to half-ownership of Facebook had been doctored. Ceglia now awaits trial for criminal fraud charges,
according to The Associated Press.
Facebook also acquired virtual reality company Oculus Rift for $2 billion last week. The company began as a Kickstarter project in 2012, and has since developed many prototypes and raised tens of millions of dollar in funding. It's currently building a set of goggles to immerse users in nearly any world they choose.
Zuckerberg also continues his efforts to connect the world to the Internet,
writing on his Facebook Timeline last week that he and Facebook's Connectivity Lab plan on using "drones, satellites, and lasers to deliver Internet to everyone."
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