Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2012/11/21/marc_andreessen_sells_millions_of_dollars_worth_of_facebook_shares/
Netscape founder pays off MASSIVE tax bill with Facebook shares
Marc Andreessen offloads $54.1m worth of stock
Posted in On-Prem, 21st November 2012 12:10 GMT
Marc Andreessen - a Facebook insider who serves on the company's board - held true to his promise on Monday by selling stock worth $54.1m in the recently floated free-content ad network to pay off tax obligations.
To do that, the Netscape founder needed to offload roughly 2.3 million Facebook shares. Andreessen had agreed in September this year not to sell any personal shares in the company, aside from those needed to cover taxes on his holdings.
Facebook's copper-haired chief Mark Zuckerberg also said at the time that he wouldn't sell any personal stock for 12 months.
Andreessen's big tax bill came into effect because of the recent vesting or settlement of restricted stock units in the company. Meanwhile, Washington Post Company chairman Donald Graham - who is another prominent director at Facebook - also racked up a big tax bill for the same reason. Graham sold shares in the website worth around $6.7m to pay the taxman - as noted in this regulatory filing.
Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg offloaded yet more shares - this time selling $4.2m worth of stock. ®