Mark Zuckerberg got $11 billion richer today
By Allison Morrow, CNN Business
Nearly two months after losing his spot among the world’s 10 richest rich people, Mark Zuckerberg is clawing his way back.
Shares of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, shot up more than 17% Thursday, making Zuckerberg nearly $11 billion wealthier in a single day. The stock had been up as much as 19% earlier in the day, briefly boosting Zuckerberg’s fortune by $11.5 billion.
Even though Meta missed Wall Street revenue forecasts for the first quarter and posted its slowest revenue growth in years, investors were celebrating its turnaround on user numbers — a key metric for advertisers.
The giddy response Thursday was in stark contrast to Meta’s disastrous fourth-quarter results, which sent shares plummeting in early February in the biggest single-day wipeout in Wall Street history. That loss also knocked Zuckerberg, who owns 13% of Meta, from his No. 9 spot among the world’s uber-wealthy, as tracked by Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
As of Wednesday’s close, Zuckerberg ranked at No. 18, with a net worth of $65 billion. Thursday’s rally should catapult him up a few spots and increase his net worth to roughly $76 billion.
Although Meta was up Thursday, the stock remains 39% lower for the year and faces serious headwinds.
The company is battling rivals like TikTok, struggling to monetize popular video content and facing disruption of its core advertising business because of changes to Apple’s privacy practices.
Meta also noted that its business was hurt by Russia’s war in Ukraine — Facebook and Instagram were blocked in Russia last month — and it expects those challenges to continue in the current quarter.
— CNN Business’ Clare Duffy contributed to this report.
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