Facebook IPO: The Heftiest Paydays

Mark Zuckerberg, 27, was rich before Facebook’s IPO, but now the Facebook founder and CEO becomes insanely rich. Thanks to his 28 percent stake in the company, Zuckerberg could be adding up to $28 billion to his bank account. Not too bad for a Harvard dropout.

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In May 2009, Facebook announced that Digital Sky Technologies (DST), a global Internet investment group with “significant stakes” in Eastern European and Russian Internet businesses, made a $200 million investment in exchange for preferred stock.

Yuri Milner, CEO of DST, said at the time, said they were “delighted to invest in Facebook, Mark and his management team as they make the world more open and connected.” Delighted even more so, no doubt, with their possible $7 billion payday.

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Accel Partners was one of Facebook’s first investors, investing more than $12 million in the social network back in May 2005.

In a press release on the company’s website, Accel Partners wrote, “It is not easy capturing the attention of Jim Breyer, one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capitalists. But Mark Zuckerberg, a 21-year-old Harvard student, managed to do it with a Web site that has attracted 2.8 million registered users on more than 800 campuses since it began in February 2004.”

That $13 million investment is paying off huge: Accel Partners—and Jim Breyer (left)—could walk away with $8 billion.

Facebook Cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, 27, was the social network’s first chief technology officer and vice president of engineering, overseeing the major architecture of the site and the company’s mobile strategy and development.

Moskovitz announced in October 2008 that he was leaving Facebook to form a new company called Asana, which designs software to improve the way people collaborate in groups and manage projects. His 7 percent share in Facebook could make him a cool $7 billion richer.

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Twenty-nine year old Eduardo Saverin was Facebook’s chief financial officer and business manager when “thefacebook.com” first launched at Harvard University.

Saverin wasn’t acknowledged as a cofounder until 2009 when he filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg and Facebook. The lawsuit resulted in a settlement that named Saverin to the list of cofounders, plus a 5 percent stake in the company.

Today, Saverin’s stake could translate to a $5 billion payday.

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Sean Parker, 32, is perhaps best known for founding file-sharing music service Napster in 1999. In 2004, Parker, who served as an early adviser to social network Friendster, met with Zuckerberg after seeing “Thefacebook” on his roommate’s girlfriend’s computer. A few months later, Parker joined the social network as its founding president, signing Facebook’s first investor.

Parker resigned as president in 2005 after police searched a vacation home he was renting and found cocaine. Parker was arrested on suspicion of possession, but not charged. He retained a 4 percent stake of Facebook, which could earn him $4 billion.

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Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal, was Facebook’s first investor in 2004 when he invested $500,000 in the fledgling social network. Since that investment, Thiel has made early-stage investments in many startups including LinkedIn, Yammer and Yelp.

Today his 3 percent stake in Facebook could earn him $3 billion—that’s more than a quadriggigillion times return on the investment. Now that was a good business decision.

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The biggest chunk of change will go to the 3,200-plus engineers, developers and more, who have evolved the company and kept it running. Facebook’s employees will reportedly receive 30 percent of the possible $100 billion valuation, sharing about $30 billion.

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U2’s front man, Bono, cofounded Elevation Partners in 2004. Five years later, the private equity firm reportedly made its first investment in Facebook, spending $90 million to acquire about 1 percent of the company. A few months later, Elevation Partners upped the ante, spending $120 million for an additional 5 million shares of Facebook.

Today, its $210 million investment—or 1.5 percent stake—could earn them about $750 million.

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