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May 18, 2021

Facebook IPO to make 1,000 new millionaires

By the time you read this, Facebook is now public, which means for about $38, you can own 1/421,000,000 of the company that’s gone for sale today.

Certainly all eyes are on the social network’s Wall Street performance. All investors – and the chance to buy into Facebook is sure to bring out even grandpas and soccer moms – are now playing the waiting game: when to buy in, and at what price, for us to get rich?

It may be a long shot (Facebook’s earnings dilemma has scared off its share of money managers) but simply by going public today, Mark Zuckerberg’s site has made plenty of people a fortune.

Already, an estimated 1,000 people have become new millionaires thanks to Facebook’s IPO.

You may recall the story of the graffiti artist back in February, when it was revealed the guy had been paid in stock instead of cash for painting Facebook’s original California offices in 2005. He was to be worth some $200 million upon the site’s IPO.

*Bing: Is Facebook a good stock buy?

But today will pack significantly more weight than just making a tagger rich. By most sources, some 1,000 people that hold stake in Facebook will see their net worths balloon just by the site going public.

Most of the new millionaires are original or early Facebook employees, or other higher-ranking execs that accepted chunks of shares for coming into the company that could prove to be worth more than $100 billion.

But then there are also some periphery members of Facebook’s ownership that will enjoy huge booms to their portfolios, too.

Zuckerberg, of course, will come out squeaky clean; he’ll now be worth nearly $29 billion if Facebook sells its shares at the site’s asking price. Yet people and companies like PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who was Facebook’s first investor in 2004, and Microsoft, which bought a 1.6 per cent stake of the social network for $240 million in 2007, will all have their investments come back at a nauseating return.

Oh, and Bono? The U2 front man, who bought 2.3 per cent of Facebook through his private equity firm Elevation Partners in 2009, will see that chunk now be worth some $1.5 billion. He'll become the richest rock star on the planet, surpassing Sir Paul McCartney.

By Jason Buckland, MSN Money

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Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...

Jason BucklandJason Buckland

The modern-day MC Hammer of money, Jason can often be seen spending cash that isn’t his with the efficiency of a Wilt Chamberlain first date. After cutting his teeth as a reporter for the Toronto Sun, he joined the MSN Money team with...