Facebook $12 Billion Gift To California

Facebook is now offering 180,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock and the selling stockholders are offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock, according to the eight amendments filed by the social giant. Furthermore, WSJ reported that some of social giant’s biggest shareholders are now selling as much as half of their stakes in the company. Over the top what not to forget is that there are 139 million options held by employees.

Now, how this 139 million options brings smile at least for California State. H.D. Palmer from the state’s Department of Finance is basing the math on a share price of $35, which could end up being low. Palmer says that based on Facebook’s filing, there are 139 million options held by employees other than CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other investors. Those will net $3.8 billion, “assuming that 80 percent of these are exercised by California residents.”

The stock includes 240 million vested restricted stock units that will be eligible for settlement by the end of the year. “Assuming that 80 percent of these are settled by California residents, they will net $6.7 billion.” Along with this, there are 84 million shares of currently unvested restricted shares issued to employees eligible for settlement by the end of the year. “If 50 percent of these are settled by the end of the year and 80 percent are settled by California residents, they will yield $1.2 billion.” This total makes $11.7 billion.

Isn’t its a rough $12 billion “gift” from Facebook to California?

Related Stories: