Zuckerberg Pledges to Hold Facebook Shares for 1 Year, Stock Jumps 5 Percent
Evidence has revealed that faith in Facebook as a company could rest heavily in Mark Zuckerberg.
On Wednesday, the CEO of Facebook pledged that he would not sell his Facebook stock for at least one year. Following his announcement, Facebook stock went up 5 percent.
Zuckerberg holds about 504 million shares of his company and was eligible to sell them starting in November, although he has now stated that he plans not to do so. Of course, the large amount of shares explains the dependence on Zuckerberg when it comes to making stock decisions.
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Another 692 million estimated shares remains available for sale on the market. If Zuckerberg were to share a bulk of his load, the value of the stock could severely depreciate. But then again, many have still shown a surprising amount of faith in the CEO by going on his word alone not to sell.
On Tuesday, Facebook stock had hit one of its all time lows at only $17.55, a far cry from the $38 that the stock was valued at during Facebook's initial public offering in May.
Marc Andreessen and Donald Graham, board members of the Facebook team, have also announced that they have no current intention to sell their stocks excepting whatever is necessary to cover taxes.
On Oct. 29, the stock faces yet another threat when Facebook employees are eligible to share their shares as well. The total number of shares in the market at that time could increase by over 1 billion.
In the meantime, Facebook hopes to increase the value of its stock after investors have become worried over whether or not the company will be able to continue turning over a profit. The new target price for the stock has been set at $30.
