Mark Zuckerberg — How Has He Done in the Big Leagues?
stefanie is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
Facebook’s (NASDAQ: FB) IPO last May was anticipated with much fanfare and skepticism. Their CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, pledged $100,000 to charity December 9, 2010 as part of the Gates-Buffet initiative even when he wasn’t worth billions yet. Signatories of that pledge aim to give half of their net worth to charity. Proponents of that generous pledge are Bill Gates of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A). Microsoft is the leader in business to business solutions. Its main product is the Windows operating system. Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified company with interests in GEICO and life insurance. Both companies had billions in market capitalization before the owners decided to do humanitarian work. Joining Bill Gates and Warren Buffett was a big move albeit viewed with a wary eye. What’s your string Mark Zuckerberg?
It turns out that the generous move towards philanthropy was a precursor to his much hyped IPO. At the start of that trading day, his millions surged to $19.14 billion. The price of the stock has since swooped down and his net worth now is $9.97 billion. Mr. Market was the first to get a slice of Mr. Zuckerberg’s net worth by correcting the price of Facebook’s stock. Facebook’s stock is now around $19.50 per share and Mr. Zuckerberg owns a total of 503.6 million shares.
This is a lot of money for someone still young, recently married and well-educated like him. So now he is one of the Dons of social media. And in the war that concerns big money and turf, it is a dirty mudslinging game. One of those who was shot at was CFO David Ebersman who was said to be at fault for the $50 billion loss in Facebook's market value.
Now that Mr. Zuckerberg is playing with the big boys of technology, he learned his lessons fast. He is very street smart for a Harvard drop-out. He looked at where Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are going and deduced that mobile is where everyone is headed. Google manufactures the Nexus series and Apple is known for the iPhone. Both have a big market share of smartphone sales in the US. However, he doesn’t want to go into manufacturing mobile devices. There will not be a Facebook mobile device. Why would he need to? Facebook and other applications are in mobile devices already. He just needs to be integrated in every smartphone device.
You might be thinking of the logic behind the move. What's in store with this move to target mobile devices?
- More killer applications
- More ad revenues
- Better accessibility for users who carry their mobile phones with them
Mark Zuckerberg talks like a winner already and is eying his next big move. He concedes that his IPO did not fare as well as expected. Hey, Mr. Zuckerberg, your net worth did shoot up. That for one makes you a success already. Facebook and Twitter are the two reigning social media sites out there. There is a lot more that can be improved with how Facebook is delivering value to its users. A lot of revenue is going in from tie-ups with game developers and the advertisers.
The move to target mobile devices will clearly push Facebook ahead of the pack. Right now, there are a lot of mobile phone users who check on Facebook status updates every minute. Those who have lag time play Facebook games on their mobile devices. Clearly, Mark Zuckerberg has his vision set right.
You might disagree with my opinion. I am a sucker for social media sites like Facebook for the following reasons:
- Facebook has improved the way people connect with one another online
- There are more areas that can be tapped with the database that Facebook has collected
- Social media is new and exciting and will continue to evolve
- The Facebook brand is already high in recall and could be good for the performance of its stock in the future
Facing the future is the way to go for Mark Zuckerberg after taking stock of his miscalculations. He has to keep on swinging to keep up his batting average. With his talent and vehicle (Facebook), he is going to pitch the next wave of innovations.
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stefsoriano has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft and has the following options: long JAN 2014 $20.00 calls on Facebook. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Apple, Facebook, and Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.If you have questions about this post or the Fool’s blog network, click here for information.
