Who Owns Facebook? Top Shareholders of the Facebook

As of October 2021, Facebook’s owners decided to rebrand their company as Meta Platforms instead of Facebook. As social apps moved towards Metaverse, this change occurred. In this way, the company established a new division called “Reality Labs” that oversees the virtual realm’s development.

After a decade of dominance in representing the largest active reality in social media, Facebook is now based on the theme of Metaverse, and every aspect of this publicly traded company is turning toward that direction.

Due to this announcement, some Facebook backers have fled the scene as they think this pivot will destroy the company’s financial performance. This threat has reduced the Meta stock by 46%.

With that threat and a major shift in the Facebook working model, it has become a hot discussion about who owns Facebook. Below we will discuss who owns the most shares of Facebook or Meta and what effect they will have on the future of this trade.

What is the Facebook’s Share Structure?

Facebook’s share structure is very different and unique from other publicly-traded companies with the criteria of assigning one vote to one share. It has a dual-class share structure dividing shares into two distinct categories, and these categories are according to SEC filing by the company.

• Class A Common Stock:

Class A is a type in which normal investors can buy on the stock market and gain one vote per share. On May 18, 2012, the initial public offering of Facebook held and generated total revenue of $104 billion, one of the largest revenues created throughout the history of technology and the internet. There were 2,308,080,018 shares of the Class A common stocks in January 2022 for Meta Platform. Three thousand two hundred fifty-eight stockholders have Type A common stock.

• Class B Common Stock:

Mark Zuckerberg and a small group of insiders primarily own class B. They have 10 votes per share. There were 412,861,942 shares of Class B stock in January 2022 for Meta Platform. Thirty-two shareholders hold this type of stock.

Who are the top 3 Institutional Shareholders of Facebook in 2023?

Institutional shareholders hold about 56.6% of Meta’s total outstanding shares. Also, institutional investment managers have at least $100 million in assets under management. If individual investors acquire 5% or more of a company’s shares, they are also considered institutional investors. This requires them to file either a Schedule 13D or Schedule 13G form. Below we will inform you about the top 3 Institutional Shareholders of Facebook.

• Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and current CEO of Facebook and owns 29.3% of the total Facebook’s Class A shares, compared to his shares of 28.2% at the initial public offering (IPO). In 2016, Zuckerberg sold them worth $1.6 billion, and his remaining shares have worth $71 Billion. These stats suggest that he is among the largest Facebook shareholders and rank him among the top richest persons in the world. It is interesting to know that back in 2011, Zynga, the owner of social games like FarmVille, also had a share of 12% in the total Facebook earnings.

This 12% of revenue was mainly generated from processing fees associated with Zynga’s sales of virtual goods and from direct advertising by Zynga. Moreover, Zynga’s App also generates pages where we run ads from other advertisers and generate healthy revenue. If unfortunately, we maintain healthy relationships with Zynga, we may retain a good Platform developer, and our financial status will be heavily affected.

Facebook does not depend on external relationships for generating revenue as it now has the 4 most downloaded apps, including Facebook itself, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, generating a huge amount of revenue.

With Mark’s money from Facebook,

• You can easily 558 Gulfstream and G550 Jets, each costing $50M
• You can also buy Antilla, the world’s most expensive home, 28 times with this money.

• Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group is the major institutional shareholder holding approximately 182.9 million shares of the Meta company. It becomes 7.7% of the total shares of the company. This group has 417 traditional funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Vanguard is a mutual fund and ETF management company holding about $8.0 trillion in global assets under management (AUM). The Vanguard Communication Service ETF is another branch of the Vanguard group that holds $3.9 billion in assets under management. This way, Meta is the largest shareholder of stock, having 17.3% of total invested assets.

• BlackRock Inc.

BlackRock Inc. holds approximately 155.9 million shares of Meta company which represents 6.6% total shares outstanding. It is one of the leading asset and investment management firms with $8.7 Trillion in AUM. You can have a wide range of mutual funds, iShares ETFs, and closed-end funds through BlackRock. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF is the BlackRock largest ETF with $320.4 Billion in AUM. This way, Meta becomes the 7th largest holding of this fund.

Other Shareholders and Firms Owning Facebook

Jim Breyer and Accel Partners

Jim Breyer is an American venture capitalist with a business partnership with Accel Partners. Both of them hold 11.4% shares of Facebook, making it approximately $11.4 billion. Fortune Magazine ranked Breyer among the top 10 smartest people in technology in August 2010. You can imagine his smart thinking that he owns shares in an incredible company that has skyrocketed his wealth in recent years. Moreover, his firm, Accel Partners, also owns a stake in Facebook.

From Jim Breyers Facebook earnings,

• You can buy 228 Gulfstream G550 private jets, each costing $50M. Moreover, you can also buy 11 and a bit times the world’s most expensive home named Antilla.

Dustin Moskovitz

Dustin Moskovitz is the world’s youngest billionaire, 8 days younger than Zuckerberg. Dustin was also part of the team when Zuckerberg and others founded the site at Harvard University, and now he holds on to a 7.6% stake in the company. The current Valuation of his shares is approximately $7.6 billion. In 20008, he parted ways with Facebook and started working on his venture named path, a mobile-photo sharing site. This site has turned down an offer from Google worth $100 million. Now, the path is serving over 2 million people across the world.

With Dustin’s Facebook money,

• You can buy the world’s most expensive home, Antilla, 7 and bit times
• You can also buy 152 Gulfstream G550 Private jets, with each having a cost of $50M

Yuri Milner and Digital Sky Technologies

Yuri Milner is the owner of Digital Sky Technologies (DST), who founded this firm to only focus on investing in the internet field. His firm has investments in Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon. In May 2009, they invested $200 million in Facebook, based on a $10 Billion Valuation. Moreover, they also invested another $100 million and started buying employee shares to expand their stake in the company. And in January 2011, they partnered with Goldman Sachs and made a mutual investment of another $500 million, based on a $50 Billion Valuation. All these figures made them one of Facebook’s largest shareholders and Zynga’s. This way, they earn huge capital from more than one source, as Facebook users spent $308 million on Zynga last year.

Yuri and DST hold 5.4% of the total shares of Facebook, making it worth $7.6n billion.

With Yuri’s Facebook earnings,

• You can buy 108 Gulfstream G500 private jets, with each jet having a cost of $50M
• Moreover, you can also buy Antilla 5 times with this money

Eduardo Saverin

Eduardo Saverin was one of the creators of Facebook, and you might recognize him if you have seen the movie ‘The Social Network.’ In the films, you can see their relationships broken, and Eduardo has one-third of the company’s shares. This figure went down to 30% when Dustin Moskovitz left the country. After a few fights between Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo about the company’s work and Eduardo’s fate, whether he would remain part of the company or not, he pushed himself back from the Facebook team. After a continuous series of legal disputes between the both, Eduardo reduced his stake to only 5%. However, this tiny stake part also generated a huge amount of money for him. It generates approximately $5 Billion. Moreover, Eduardo Saverin has also invested in the early-stage startups of Owiki and Jumio.

From Eduardo’s Facebook income,

• 100 Gulfstream G550 private jets, each with a price of $50M
• Buy Antilla 5 times, the world’s most expensive home

Sean Parker

Sneak Parker was famous before the invention of Facebook due to his brilliant role in making Napster a peeer2peer file-sharing program. When there started sour relationships between him and other shareholders, he decided to put himself back with an impressive reputation and good knowledge. Sean contributed to Facebook by becoming its president when it was only five months old. Through his unique knowledge acquired from Napster and his role as an adviser to Friendster, he led the company to make rapid progress. He tried hard and succeeded in introducing the first investor to mark Zuckerberg. Peter Thiel was the investor who established the photo-sharing feature in the App. Mark said, ‘Parker was Pivotal in Helping Facebook transform from a college project into a real company.’ Parker holds only 4% of the company’s shares, generating about $4 Billion. He also invested $15 M in Spotify, a rival to the new version of Napster.

From Sean Parker’s Facebook money,

• You can easily buy 80 Gulfstream G550 private jets, with each jet having a cost of $50M
• Also, buy 4 times the world’s most expensive home Antilla

Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel was known for his success on the internet due to his investment in PayPal, which he sold for $1.5 Billion in 2002. This way, he made some good investments. Peter invested $500,000 in the company and became the first investor on Facebook. This way, he holds 10.2% shares of Facebook. Due to the saturation of investors in this field, his share has been, of course, watered down in the last eight years. His shares in the company generate $3 Billion in the capital, which is quite a handsome amount.

With Peter Thiel’s Facebook money, you can buy

• 50 Gulfstream G550 jets, each costing $50M
• 2 and half times buy Antilla

Bill Gates or Microsoft

Bill Gated, aka Microsoft, bought into Facebook in 2008 by investing $240 million. Microsoft holds 1.6% of the company’s total shares and makes good money of around $1.3 billion. When Microsoft bought the shares, Facebook was in its early stages of development, and people were switching towards it from other social networks. Now, they have dispersed some of their shares and hold only 1.3% of the total. Facebook and Microsoft Officials met at various places to make this closing deal.

From Bill Gates, aka Microsoft Facebook money, you can buy

• 26 Gulfstream G550 Jets and each jet having a cost of 50M
• Also, buy Antilla, the world’s most expensive home

Chris Hughes

Chris Hughes was also one of the co-founders of Facebook, along with Mark, Eduardo, and Dustin at Harvard University. Chris was also a social media in-charge panel of former president Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. In the Magazine Fast Company, he was given the title ‘The Kid Who Made Obama President; How Facebook Cofounder Chris Hughes Unleashed Barack’s Base- and Changes Politics Forever.’ This suggests that Chris played a huge role in the success of Obama due to his vast knowledge of social media. He holds only 1% of the total shares and earns about $1 Billion.

With Chris Hughes Facebook earned money, you can buy

• 20 Gulfstream G550 private jets each costing 50M
• Also, buy the world’s most expensive home named Antilla

Li Ka-Shing

Li Ka-Shing is a Hong Kong Billionaire who bought Facebook back in 2008. At that time, the company had a valuation of around $15 billion, and he invested $120 million, which is approximately 0.8% of the total shares. It seems a tiny amount, but now its worth is almost seven times what he paid for it, at $800 Million. You can anticipate the results if you invest at that time. Some investors now think that they have missed a huge opportunity.

From Li Ka-things Facebook earned money, you can buy

• 16 Gulfstream G550 private jets, each jet costing 50M

Meta’s Plans for Future Growth and Development

Mark Zuckerberg has very clear plans to offer users to share unlimited space and experiences. It will be an immersive reality that will become part of the daily lives of billions of people worldwide. You will not only explore the internet but also enjoy amazing new experiences for learning purposes. And these projects are rapidly taking shape into a reality.

Conclusion – Who owns Facebook?

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is a publicly traded company owned by numerous shareholders. These shareholders include institutional investors and other firms who own two types of stocks: Type A common stocks and type B common stocks. This article comprehensively explains Facebook’s shares structure, its institutional shareholders, Cofounders, other firms holding Facebook shares, and investors’ plans for owning Meta’s stocks. So, please read this article fully to know who owns Facebook these days.

Frequently Asked Questions – Who owns Facebook?

Who is the biggest shareholder of Facebook?

Mark Zuckerberg is the biggest shareholder of Facebook 398.2 million Facebook or Meta shares, constituting 16.8% of all outstanding shares.

Why does Facebook changed to Meta?

Facebook changed to Meta due to the reason that all social media apps started shifting towards metaverse technology. Metaverse is a technology that diminishes the difference between virtual and physical appearance.