American investors have been behaving like a gaggle of teenage girls anxious for a high school crush to post on their Facebook wall over the past eighteen months. They haven’t been waiting for emotional validation through the infamous social network, though. (That is, at least not literally.) All investors want from Facebook is a piece of the pie, an initial public offering that will allow them to pour their capital into the hottest online property in a decade while it’s still a growing concern. Right now, Facebook looks like a technology company ready to earn, like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) did in 2005 and not so different than Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) did at the beginning of last decade; Facebook has potential. In 2001, though, Apple CEO Steve Jobs couldn’t wait to bring in investor capital. Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old CEO and co-creator of Facebook, might not really be thinking too much about bringing in money to grow his company. After all, Forbes just named him the 35th richest man in the United States. Who needs investment when your personal net worth is $6.9 billion and your private company is worth nearly $23 billion all on its own?
$4 billion of Zuckerberg’s $6.9 billion is in personal assets, placing him inside of the top 225 wealthiest human beings on the planet. The young tycoon may not have Bill Gates—still America’s wealthiest citizen with a net worth of $54 billion—in his sights, but he’s already breezed past Apple Inc.’s Jobs, whose net worth is $6.1 billion as of this fall. Zuckerberg is also surprisingly richer than News Corps.’ (NYSE: NWS) Ruper Murdoch, currently worth $6.2 billion, and music and film mogul David Geffen, whose worth has fallen alongside his respective industries.
Sony (NYSE: S) and its Sony Pictures subsidiary Columbia Pictures will be releasing The Social Network in theaters across the country next Friday. The film, a biopic of both Zuckerberg and Facebook itself, is no mere cash-in on the nearly ubiquitous online service. The film has attracted some of filmmaking’s most respected and revered artists, including director David Fincher (Fight Club), writer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), and features a soundtrack composed by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor. The film also stars box office draws like Justin Timberlake. In just one week, Zuckerberg will have more than just the intense scrutiny of the business world placed on him. He’ll have literally every eye in the country turned his way.
As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
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