He hacked. He liked. He conquered.
Mark Zuckerberg’s incredible wealth and power was revealed for the first time yesterday as his social network giant filed — finally! — to go public.
The first-ever peek behind the curtain at the eight-year old tech titan shows just how powerful the 27-year old CEO is — including controlling 57 percent of Facebook’s voting power and being able to name a successor, even one after he is dead.
“Mr. Zuckerberg has the ability to control the management and affairs of our company as a result of his position as our CEO and his ability to control the election of our directors,” the company said yesterday in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In an almost unheard of twist, Zuckerberg on his deathbed can handpick his successor.
“In the event that Mr. Zuckerberg controls our company at the time of his death, control may be transferred to a person or entity that he designates as his successor,” according to one disclosure.
In its first public disclosure of its financial data, Facebook revealed its profits grew to $1 billion last year and that revenues soared 88 percent to $3.7 billion.
Facebook filed for an initial public offering to raise at least $5 billion, valuing the company at between $75 billion and $100 billion. At the high end, Zuckerberg’s wealth would top $28 billion — making him one of the wealthiest people in the world.
While many co-founders of companies try to maintain control of their start-ups, filings show that Zuckerberg is even more intensely focused on ruling, analysts said.
Facebook said it is taking advantage of an exemption from “controlled-company” rules.
“Because we qualify as a ‘controlled company’ under the corporate governance rules for publicly listed companies, we are not required to have a majority of our board of directors be independent, nor are we required to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function,” the filings said.
It’s unusual for a CEO to have such power, said Sam Hamadeh, an analyst with PrivCo.com.
“He controls succession rights. You can’t fire him, can’t replace him. He designates his successor,” Hamadeh said.
However, all that power won’t deter investors from jumping into the stock when it starts trading, probably sometime in June, according to David Menlow, an analyst with IPO Financial.
“We’ve got a real monolith in the marketplace with Zuckerberg and everything he’s connected with,” Menlow said.