Mark Zuckerberg Drops Off Top Billionaires' List

As Facebook's shares dropped below $30 Tuesday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg lost $4.7 billion on paper, and fell off a list measuring the world's top 40 billionaires.

Bloomberg's Billionaire Index reported that Zuckerberg's fortune fell to $14.7 billion, putting him outside of the top 40 billionaires on the list, according to Bloomberg. Zuckerberg is now $800 million behind the index's No. 40, Luis Carlos Sarmiento, a Colombian financier with a fortune of $15.5 billion. The index is a daily ranking of the world's richest people.

Shares of Facebook were selling for $28.12 Wednesday afternoon, about $10 less than its initial-public offering price. That drop also made Zuckerberg's wealth slide from $19 billion to $14.7 billion, according to the Guardian. Zuckerberg also has other worries, as Facebook is slapped with a class-action suit alleging that the social network misled investors about revenue projections.

That nearly $4.5 billion loss was basically on paper: the difference between what the expected value of the stock was and what the market said it was. Did that wealth actually exist? That's a question for philosophers. But Zuckerberg and Facebook's luster is now a bit tarnished.

Contact Us