Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Facebook Inc’s first institutional investor, has sold three-quarters of his remaining stake in the social network, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
Thiel, who is a member of Facebook’s board, now owns 59,913 Class A shares in the company after selling 160,805 shares for about $29 million.
Thiel sold roughly 20 million of his 26 million Facebook shares for $400 million following its stock market listing in 2012.
Thiel, who is a member of Facebook’s board, now owns 59,913 Class A shares in the company after selling 160,805 shares for about $29 million.
The only major name in Silicon Valley to back President Donald Trump, some have called for Thiel’s removal from Facebook’s board.
Chief Executive and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has said he should stay, citing the importance of diversity of opinion at the company.
A Facebook representative called Thiel’s sales routine and said there was nothing new to say about the billionaire’ s seat on the company’s board.
Representatives for the venture capitalist could not immediately be reached for comment.
Thiel co-founded payment service PayPal and is known for funding the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that led to the shutdown of online news site Gawker.
He became a Facebook investor in 2004 with an initial investment of $500,000 at a $5 million valuation.
When Zuckerberg took the company public in 2012, Thiel sold 16.8 million shares at the IPO for about $640 million.
Later the same year, he sold roughly 20 million of his remaining 26 million shares for $400 million after the expiry of a lockup.
He hit the market once again in 2016 to sell a little less than 1 million shares for about $100 million.
Facebook shares were down 0.7 percent at $180.59 on Wednesday.
In August 2004, Thiel made a $500,000 angel investment in Facebook for a 10.2% stake in the company and joined Facebook’s board.
This was the first outside investment in Facebook, and put the valuation of the company at $4.9 million.
Facebook shares have surged 58 percent this year through Tuesday, adding $25 billion to Thiel’s fortune and making him the world’s fourth-richest person with $74.9 billion.
Thiel has a net worth of $3.2 billion, including a stake in data analytics company Palantir Technologies Inc..
Last month he got hitched in Vienna, Austria to his longtime boyfriend.
The billionaire venture capitalist tied the knot with Matt Danzeisen, Axios reported.
The couple’s wedding was reportedly a surprise to guests who thought they were celebrating Thiel’s 50th birthday.
Danzeisen works as a portfolio manager at Thiel Capital, but not much is known about his position at the company.
Thiel has not commented publicly about the wedding or Danzeisen.
Back in May Danzeisen spoke about the state of financial technology at a conference in Japan.
‘What might explain some of the slowdown is that winners are emerging as certain business models are becoming more clearly dominant,’ Danzeisen said at the time. ‘So, it is cyclical, but we’ll still see innovation.’
PETER THIEL’S YOUNG BLOOD PLANS
Top executives in Silicon Valley are turning to blood from young people in the search for the ‘biological fountain of youth.’
Early studies have suggested that the parabiosis procedure, which involves the transfusion of blood plasma from a young donor, can have age-reversing effects on the body – but it will cost you $8,000 (£6,180).
One of the most well-known executives turning to parabiosis is billionaire tech investor, Peter Thiel
One of the most well-known executives turning to parabiosis is billionaire tech investor, Peter Thiel.
Ambrosia was contacted last year by Thiel Capital’s chief medical officer, Jason Camm, who expressed interest in the work.
In an interview last year, Mr Thiel said: ‘I’m looking into parabiosis stuff, which I think is really interesting.
‘This is where they did the young blood into older mice and they found that had a massive rejuvenating effect.’
Thiel went on to clarify that the procedure was of interest as a personal-health treatment, and said it would not require FDA approval.
Still, the investor remarked then that he hadn’t ‘quite, quite, quite started yet’ in moving forward with parabiosis, and according to Inc, this is still the case.
Thiel was a major supporter Donald Trump prior to the 2016 presidential election.
But Danzeisen was ‘much more moderate’ in his support for Trump, Buzzfeed reported.
Since Trump took over the White House in January, Thiel has kept a quite and low profile.
He reportedly recently invested in a startup called 3T Biosciences with early Facebook investor Sean Parker.
The startup aims to build technology to fight cancer cells.