EXCLUSIVE: Here's The Email Zuckerberg Sent To Cut His Cofounder Out Of Facebook (2024)

Billionaire Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverinthe guy everyone now hates because he's renouncing his US citizenship in order to avoid a lot of taxes – hasn't worked at Facebook since 2005. That's when CEO Mark Zuckerberg diluted his stake and then booted him from the company.

Saverin's exit from Facebook was the central plot ofThe Social Network.

Maybe you remember this scene?

Today we have a long, detailed re-telling of the true story behind the movie.

The basics: Saverin was tasked with running Facebook's business side while Zuckerberg worked on the product. But instead of joining the company out in Palo Alto, Saverin stayed on the East coast and worked on another startup. Eventually, he started to feel left out, and he froze Facebook's bank account.

To ease Saverin out and limit his say over how Facebook would be funded, Zuckerberg reduced Saverin's stake in the company.

Zuckerberg did this by creating a new company to acquire the old company and then distribute new shares in the new company to everybody but Saverin.

Well now, thanks to a well-placed source, we've come up with something cool.

It's the email then 20-year-old Mark Zuckerberg sent his lawyer giving him the go ahead to draft paperwork that would result in Saverin's dilution.

We love the email because it's an artifact of a young Mark Zuckerberg – a man who has grown up a lot since he wrote it, and will be in our lives for a very long time.

The fun part is where Zuckerberg says to his lawyer: "Is there a way to do this without making it painfully apparent to him that he's being diluted to 10%?"

The full letter:

[Redacted],

This email should probably be attorney-client privileged, not quite how to do that though.

Anyhow, Sean and I have agreed that a price of one-half cent per share is the way to go for now. We think we can maybe almost justify and if not, we'll just deal with it later.

We also agreed that if the company bonusing us the amount we need for the shares, plus tax, is a good solution to the problem of us all being completely broke.

As far as Eduardo goes, I think it's safe to ask for his permission to make grants. Especially if we do it in conjunction with raising money. It's probably even OK to say how many shares we're adding to the pool. It's probably less OK to tell him who's getting the shares, just because he might have adverse reaction initially. But I think we may even be able to make him understand that.

Is there a way to do this without making it painfully apparent to him that he's being diluted to 10%?

OK, that's all for now. I'll send you the list of grants I need made in another email in a second. Sean can send you grants for his people when he stops coughing up his lungs.

Hope you guys both feel better,
Mark

And here's part of the lawyer's response:

…I spent some time discussing the risks associated with making these grants and picking the per share price of common stock. Mark, you and I should discuss these at length to insure that you understand them. I've outlined them below for your easy reference.

The broad categories of legal risk are a) fiduciary duty. As Eduardo is the only shareholder being diluted by the grants issuances there is substantial risk that he may claim the issuances, especially the ones to Dustin and Mark, but also to Sean, are a breach of fiduciary duty later on if not now. I believe that you previously disclosed these future dilutative issuances to Eduardo before the LLC merger. This is what I recommended at the time. Nevertheless, it would be great if there is some way you could obtain a shareholder consent from Eduardo approving these new issuances. It isn't *required* but it would be very advantageous and would go a very long way towards preventing any future claims he might have for breach of fiduciary duty. I mentioned this to Sean and he was going to give it some thought.

In the end, the lawyer was right to worry.

Saverin eventually sued Facebook over breach of fiduciary duty. Facebook and Saverin settled, and he walked away with 4% or 5% of the company. That stake is now worth close to $5 billion.

Meanwhile, Facebook has done pretty well with Zuckerberg running the show with sole authority.

Eight years after its creation, Facebook will raise $15 billion in an IPO this Friday that will value the company at somewhere around $100 billion.

EXCLUSIVE: Here's The Email Zuckerberg Sent To Cut His Cofounder Out Of Facebook (2024)

FAQs

Why did Zuckerberg cut Saverin out of Facebook? ›

First, Zuckerberg wanted to cut out Eduardo because according to Mark, Saverin was failing at his job; running unauthorized ads, and the big one being when Saverin was hesitant to sign Facebook's company reformation, which was a crucial step in getting investors like Peter Thiel to make some funding deals.

How did Mark Zuckerberg get rid of his partner? ›

This led to Zuckerberg choosing to effectively cut out Saverin. Zuckerberg wrote in an instant message to an unnamed confidant at the time, saying of Saverin, “We basically need to sign over our intellectual property to a new company and just take the lawsuit… I'm just going to cut him out and then settle with him…"

How much did Eduardo get from Facebook settlement? ›

In the end, the lawyer was right to worry. Saverin eventually sued Facebook over breach of fiduciary duty. Facebook and Saverin settled, and he walked away with 4% or 5% of the company. That stake is now worth close to $5 billion.

What did Mark Zuckerberg do to the co-founder of Facebook? ›

In 2005, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg and Facebook, alleging that Zuckerberg had illegally spent Saverin's money on personal expenses.

Were Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin actually friends? ›

Eduardo Saverin was Zuckerberg's best friend, Facebook's first investor, and the original business manager and CFO when Facebook first launched in Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room.

Why did everyone quit Facebook? ›

Many of those who delete Facebook speak of widely recognised reasons for leaving the platform: concerns with its echo chamber effects, avoiding time wasting and procrastination, and the negative psychological effects of perpetual social comparison.

How is Eduardo Saverin worth so much? ›

Does Eduardo still own 30% of Facebook? ›

Currently, Saverin owns a 2% (worth roughly $9 billion) stake in Facebook. However, Saverin hasn't worked for Facebook since 2005 — the year Zuckerberg diluted Saverin's stake in Facebook. Mark contended that Eduardo didn't complete any tasks he was supposed to for thefacebook.com.

What did Mark Zuckerberg apologize for? ›

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized over a growing data scandal in an interview Thursday, telling CNN's Laurie Segall that the exposure of users' data to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica “was a major breach of trust,” and that he was “really sorry that this happened.”

Does Sean Parker still own part of Facebook? ›

Because of his early work with Facebook, Parker had an ownership interest in the company from its beginning. Even after he left Facebook in 2005, Parker retained his stake in the company. As Facebook has grown, so has Parker's wealth.

How much is 0.03 percent of Facebook worth? ›

Facebook is worth $350B, so $100M is only 0.03% equity. He likely had more than that, but the article is old so the number today could be more like $500M.

Is Sean Parker still part of Facebook? ›

He was also responsible for working hard to purchase the Facebook.com domain name and secured Peter Thiel as the company's first investor. Parker was forced to step down as Facebook president in 2005 after an arrest for drug possession in North Carolina.

How did Mark Zuckerberg keep control of Facebook? ›

Under one type of voting agreement, stockholders agreed to vote all of their shares as directed by, and granted an irrevocable proxy to, Mr. Zuckerberg at his discretion on all matters to be voted upon by stockholders.

Who is the real founder of Facebook? ›

Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, all of whom were students at Harvard University.

How does Mark Zuckerberg still own Facebook? ›

Facebook, rebranded as Meta in 2021, is primarily owned by Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO. Zuckerberg keeps tight control over the ownership and decision-making of the company. Other large individual shareholders comprise former COO Sheryl Sandberg and co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

Does Eduardo Saverin like the social network? ›

Eduardo Saverin

Thoughts on The Social Network: In a 2010 op-ed for CNBC, Saverin wrote “the movie was clearly intended to be entertainment and not a fact-based documentary.” In 2012, he hammered home the same point in an interview with Brazilian magazine Veja: "That's Hollywood fantasy, not a documentary."

Does Mark Zuckerberg have any friends? ›

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has publicly acknowledged for the first time that he has not a single real friend.

How much of Facebook does Zuckerberg own? ›

Facebook biggest shareholders: What is Mark Zuckerberg's stake? Who are the stakeholders of Facebook? According to Meta Platform's latest annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mark Zukerberg owns over 800,000 Class A Shares and over 300,000,000 Class B Shares.

What will replace Facebook? ›

12+ Best Alternatives to Facebook (That Respect Privacy & Keep Your Data Safe)
  • WT. Social. ...
  • MeWe. MeWe markets itself as the “next-gen social network” — an app built with the latest social-sharing technology — with privacy built into the design. ...
  • Mastodon. ...
  • Diaspora. ...
  • Minds. ...
  • Vero. ...
  • Ello. ...
  • LinkedIn.
Jan 12, 2023

Why deleting Facebook is good? ›

Is it good to delete social media? In essence, there are actually a lot of reasons why removing social media could be quite beneficial for your life. You can be more productive, have better mental health, be more focused, be more creative, and even save money by deactivating or deleting your social media accounts.

Is Facebook starting to decline? ›

In 2021, Facebook's market share among social networks in the US dropped to 50.8% from 54.3% in 2019, This statistic is a telling sign of the decline of Facebook's influence in the US social media market.

How much did Saverin get in settlement? ›

The lawsuit eventually resulted in the twins winning a $65 million settlement. It's also well known that the friendship ended in a lawsuit between Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

Does Eduardo Saverin still own Facebook shares? ›

Net Worth Summary

The majority of Saverin's fortune is derived from his stake in Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook. He owns about 2% of the company, according to its 2022 proxy statement.

Why did Eduardo sue Mark Zuckerberg? ›

This blog is based on “The Social Network” Movie. The only close friend of Mark Zuckerberg before Facebook was Eduardo. Eduardo had sued Mark for diluting his shares in Facebook. So Mark's lawyers were looking for arguments against Eduardo which supports the fact that his actions jeopardized the company.

Who controls Facebook? ›

Among its majority owners is Mark Zuckerberg, who owns the majority shares of the company. Several other individuals and institutions hold essential stakes in the company. Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has experienced tremendous growth and now boasts more than two billion users worldwide.

Who is Meta owned by? ›

Meta Platforms
Meta's main headquarters in Menlo Park, California
Total equityUS$125.71 billion (2022)
OwnerMark Zuckerberg (controlling shareholder)
Number of employees77,114 (Mar. 2023)
DivisionsReality Labs
18 more rows

Who owns majority of Facebook? ›

Mark Zuckerberg

Yet he holds the majority voting power in the company. This is because Facebook's shares are divided into two categories – Class A and Class B.

Who begged Mark Zuckerberg for money? ›

Kanye West begs Mark Zuckerberg for $1 billion on Twitter.

What is Mark Zuckerberg criticized for? ›

The company and its employees have also been subject to litigation cases over the years, with its most prominent case concerning allegations that CEO Mark Zuckerberg broke an oral contract with Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra to build the then-named "HarvardConnection" social network in 2004, ...

Did Meta lay off 11000 workers? ›

In November, Meta laid off more than 11,000 people, or about 13 percent of its work force at the time. Meta also plans to close about 5,000 job postings that have yet to be filled, Mr. Zuckerberg said in the memo.

Does Sean Parker own 7% of Facebook? ›

Sean Parker

Parker owns 4% of the total Facebook shares which might seem like a small piece but in terms of gains, it translates into $4 billion.

How much is 7 percent of Facebook worth? ›

Goldman and DST bought in at a $50 billion valuation. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz's roughly 7 percent stake would be worth around $7 billion. Ownership percentages, based here on existing totals of Class A and Class B shares, may change slightly through the IPO process.

Who are the largest shareholders of Meta? ›

Top 10 Owners of Meta Platforms Inc
StockholderStakeShares owned
The Vanguard Group, Inc.7.70%171,389,415
Fidelity Management & Research Co...5.10%113,600,636
BlackRock Fund Advisors4.49%100,014,259
SSgA Funds Management, Inc.3.97%88,310,710
6 more rows

What is the $100 charge from Facebook? ›

But bloggers discovered the new fee when testing a message to the founder himself, Mark Zuckerberg. And the fee prompt can be replicated with other popular accounts. The fee seems to jump from $1 to $100 when the person you're messaging has a whole bunch of followers, or is a well-known public figure.

What is the highest stock price of Facebook? ›

The all-time high FB Financial stock closing price was 47.60 on March 12, 2021. The FB Financial 52-week high stock price is 45.25, which is 82.1% above the current share price. The FB Financial 52-week low stock price is 24.34, which is 2.1% below the current share price.

What is Facebook's most valuable asset? ›

“The most valuable asset that Facebook possesses is the data that its users, often unwittingly, hand over for free before they are in effect sold to advertisers. It seems only fair that Facebook makes a bigger social contribution for profiting from this massively valuable, collectively generated resource.

Was Erica Albright a real person? ›

He was happily in a relationship with his girlfriend at the time, and there was no real-life version of Erica Albright (Rooney Mara, “A Ghost Story”) nor any crude reference to her below-average cup size, or so the real Zuckerberg says. The multi-billionaire cannot, however, wash away the creation of FaceMash.

How much of The Social Network is true? ›

The movie isn't terribly accurate (and Sorkin won't argue)

Given that The Social Network isn't just based on a true story but on a relatively recent true story, it's not surprising that a lot of people were combing through the film to assess the accuracy.

Does Sean Parker know how do you code? ›

Sean Parker - Education

At school, he used to spend most of his time in the computer lab and practicing coding. Thus, he soon became a passionate programmer and used to intern at companies while studying in his high school. He used to write codes for startup companies.

Can anyone block Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook? ›

It's impossible to do - which is annoying if you're one of Mark's exes. Hilariously, you can't block Mark Zuckerberg's updates on Facebook. If you try, then you get an error message telling you that 'This profile can't be blocked for now' like this one Reddit userwho gave it a go discovered.

Who decided to drop the from Facebook? ›

Before he convinced Mark Zuckerberg to drop the "the" and signed on as Facebook's first president, Sean Parker helped launch two other big startups: Napster and Plaxo. Napster is the one you've probably heard of.

Can we block Mark Zuckerberg? ›

You can deactivate your account instead, by going to Security and Login in the Settings menu. Now, when you visit Mr Zuckerberg's page and click Block, a popup box appears, reading, “Are you sure you want to block Mark Zuckerberg? “Mark Zuckerberg will no longer be able to: See things you post on your timeline.

What was Facebook originally called? ›

Mark Zuckerberg releases Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook. It is described as a Harvard University version of Hot or Not. Mark Zuckerberg begins with his fellow co-founders writing Facebook. Zuckerberg launches Facebook as a Harvard-only social network.

Who is the Facebook King? ›

Thus, Mark Zuckerberg is the king of Facebook.

What was Facebook originally created for? ›

Who owns the percentage of Facebook? ›

Mark Zuckerberg is the largest shareholder with 28.2 percent of the company. He's followed by Accel (invested in 2005) and Accel Partner Jim Breyer who owns 11.4 percent of the company. Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz owns 7.6 percent of the company, followed by DST with 5.4 percent.

Who is the owner of Facebook now 2023? ›

Mark Zuckerberg

How much cash does Zuckerberg have? ›

According to Forbes, the Meta founder is worth $67.6 billion as of February 2, 2023.

What happened between Zuckerberg and Saverin? ›

Saverin then filed a suit against Zuckerberg, alleging Zuckerberg spent Facebook's money (Saverin's money) on personal expenses over the summer. In 2009, both suits were settled out of court. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed and the company affirmed Saverin's title as co-founder of Facebook.

What happened to Eduardo Saverin shares in Facebook? ›

Eduardo invested an initial capital of $15,000. Currently, Saverin owns a 2% (worth roughly $9 billion) stake in Facebook. However, Saverin hasn't worked for Facebook since 2005 — the year Zuckerberg diluted Saverin's stake in Facebook.

Why did Mark Zuckerberg not like The Social Network? ›

'Nightline' talks with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Diane Sawyer interviews the CEO at the Palo Alto offices. He emphasizes that The Social Network movie is "fiction" and refers to it as a "distraction" that he and his employees should not be too focused on.

Why did Saverin renounce his US citizenship? ›

Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook co-founder immortalized by his falling out with Mark Zuckerberg in the movie The Social Network, has renounced his U.S. citizenship ahead of the company's IPO. Saverin, 30, may have made the move for tax reasons, hoping to avoid the highest rates before Facebook goes public.

Did Eduardo Saverin lose his shares? ›

Saverin's stake was ultimately reduced not because he gave up his shares but because his ownership was diluted when new shares were issued.

How much is Eduardo worth now? ›

What percentage of Facebook does Zuckerberg own? ›

#1 Mark Zuckerberg – 29.3% – US $54.3 billion (March 2020)

Mark Zuckerberg (Founder and CEO) now owns 29.3 percent of Facebook's Class A shares (NASDAQ: FB), compared to the time of the IPO, (which you can read in full here) when Zuckerberg owned 28.2% of Facebook. Here's another little interesting fact about Facebook.

How did Mark Zuckerberg retain so much equity? ›

Lemkin explains: Zuckerberg was able to retain ownership of a large portion of the company by skipping a venture capital round. "Because it's less how much you raise that creates dilution--it's how many times you raise," Lemkin wrote.

What is Mark Zuckerberg's IQ? ›

Actually, Bill Gates is a prodigy it's safe to say . As a rather young man he became a member of MENSA , and has a reported IQ of 160, while Mr Zuckerberg has no published test score officially, but is rumored to have an IQ around 140. This is unconfirmed yet scandalously probable.

Did Mark Zuckerberg ever watch The Social Network? ›

Zuckerberg said he would not watch The Social Network when the movie was being made. He changed his mind. Zuckerberg ended up taking some Facebook employees to see the movie. Afterward, he said the film was largely fictional, save for his wardrobe.

Did Zuckerberg agree to The Social Network? ›

Not only did Zuckerberg accept their offer, but he ultimately transformed their idea into something more extravagant; something that would reach even more people.

Can you live in the US after renouncing citizenship? ›

When you renounce citizenship, you lose the right to live and work in the U.S. You will not be able to vote in U.S. elections. You will not be entitled to the protection of the United States overseas. You will no longer be able to enter the U.S. and remain indefinitely.

Why are so many people renouncing U.S. citizenship? ›

Why So Many Renunciations? The current tax laws—and the reporting, filing and tax obligations that accompany them—have made many Americans choose to renounce their citizenship, not just because of the money, but because they find the tax compliance and disclosure laws inconvenient, onerous, and even unfair.

Does the US ban second citizenship? ›

U.S. immigration law does not prohibit dual nationality. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled that people can “have and exercise rights of nationality in two countries.” However, your country of origin may or may not allow dual citizenship.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Tuan Roob DDS

Last Updated:

Views: 6494

Rating: 4.1 / 5 (42 voted)

Reviews: 81% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Tuan Roob DDS

Birthday: 1999-11-20

Address: Suite 592 642 Pfannerstill Island, South Keila, LA 74970-3076

Phone: +9617721773649

Job: Marketing Producer

Hobby: Skydiving, Flag Football, Knitting, Running, Lego building, Hunting, Juggling

Introduction: My name is Tuan Roob DDS, I am a friendly, good, energetic, faithful, fantastic, gentle, enchanting person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.