Zuckerberg to give away 99% of their shares in Facebook

Reasonably serious discussion
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Pretty amazing as they did not pay much corp tax… but still WOW!!

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan say they will give away 99% of their shares in the company to good causes as they announce the birth of their daughter Max.

Mr Zuckerberg made the announcement in a letter to Max on his Facebook page.

He said they are donating their fortune to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative because they want to make the world a better place for Max to grow up in.

Mr Zuckerberg said the donation currently amounts to $45bn (£30bn).

Max was born last week, but the couple only made the news of her birth public on Tuesday.

In his letter Mr Zuckerberg said the aim of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is “to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation”.

Its initial areas of focus will be personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.

![Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg|976x549](upload://hSS8GdnxqtBrQMwU9QLqB3vSoVv.jpeg)Image copyrightReutersImage captionBoth Ms Chan and Mr Zuckerberg are taking parental leave

“Your mother and I don’t yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future,” Mr Zuckerberg said at the start of his letter to Max.

“You’ve already given us a reason to reflect on the world we hope you live in,” it added.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet congratulated Zuckerberg and Chan, proclaiming that when it comes to giving away your fortune, “30 is the new 70”.

No longer should billionaires wait to die before handing over money to a different generation, Buffet said, in a gushing approval of Silicon Valley’s newest and most influential power couple.

Everything Mark Zuckerberg does is eyed with intense scrutiny, not least due to the nature of Facebook’s business of making money from personal data.

But while the 31-year-old’s previous charitable efforts have been criticised for being too focused on building Facebook’s user base, this latest pledge appears to leave the Facebook business to one side.

It’s a continuation of what we’ve seen developing over the past six months, where Zuckerberg appears at ease hosting heads of state as he does in the company of his own development team.

The days of Mark Zuckerberg being seen as a nerdy, awkward tech dork are well behind us.

His ambition now is clearly to be a significant figure on the global political stage.

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That is a wonderful thing to do, fair play to them. Let’s hope that money is used to it’s fullest to help and solve issues, as this world is getting pretty fucked up at the moment.

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This is his first salvo in a presedential bid in the future.

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If they wanted a better world they wouldnt have given us Facebook in the first place.

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It’s ‘over the course of our lives’, so yeah, nice sentiment, good pr, very unlikely to be more than the surplus of his controlling options for the next 30 years.

Saying that, Buffett’s done a good job in convincing some of the insanely rich to actually spend some billions before they die. Zuck’s the youngest to sign up.

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It’s not quite as it sounds. Not a criticism, still think it’ll do a lot of good, so good on him. But it isn’t all ‘going to charity’.

To do this, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have set up the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability company - not a charity or charitable trust. Legal filingsshow that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is owned and controlled by Zuckerberg.

A spokesperson has confirmed to Buzzfeed that as a company, the Initiative can spend its money on whatever it wants - including private, profit-generating investment.

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On balance I find it does more good than harm. Yes, it sometimes feels like a tool for uncovering all the racists in your circle of family, friends and acquaintances, but it’s also enabled countless reunions, piss-ups and put old mates back in touch.

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When me and the missus win the Euro Lottery BIG we are going to sit back as dish out money to help deserving causes at an individual level. i.e. Parents looking to fund a treatment for their child…not available on NHS because “NICE” are dragging their heels but available elsewhere…here’s the money. That kind of thing.

The rich can always do more. When you get older and there are just two of you comfortable in the nest, you don’t need much. “What do you want for XXXXmas?” “Hmmm…nothing really” “Birthday?” “Nothing really”

There’s a real imperitive for the rich to do more.

Please upvote me for being kind…give generously for XXXXmas :lou_wink_2:

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