The rise and fall of the wealth of some of the world’s wealthiest individuals can sometimes be interwoven with the rise and fall of the stock market. Specifically, for a business leader whose wealth exists as shares of a particular company, a hit to the stock price can have larger consequences. Consider Facebook, which is currently in the midst of an advertiser boycott over the company’s policies on hate speech.
According to a new article by Siraj Datoo at Bloomberg, the backlash to Facebook’s policies has had a significant impact on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth. On Friday, Facebook’s stock price dropped by 8.3% — which also influenced Zuckerberg’s own wealth. To wit:
The share-price drop eliminated $56 billion from Facebook’s market value and pushed Zuckerberg’s net worth down to $82.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That also moved the Facebook chief executive officer down one notch to fourth place, overtaken by Louis Vuitton boss Bernard Arnault, who was elevated to one of the world’s three richest people along with Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
That said, Zuckerberg’s wealth had previously increased by $30 billion during the pandemic, according to this report by Markets Insider. (If the scale of Zuckerberg’s wealth is difficult to fathom, this video may be helpful.) With Facebook’s policies still prompting controversy, this particular downtick in its stock is unlikely to be the last time that it fluctuates this year.
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