The years pass and Mark Zuckerberg's fortunes have dramatically turned around.
In 2022, he was the laughingstock of his peers in Silicon Valley, suffering humiliation after humiliation. He was ejected from the list of the top 20 richest people.
This year, he is taking his revenge. And he may have the last laugh.
Zuckerberg's wealth is linked to the stock-market performance of Meta Platforms (META), of which he is one of the largest individual shareholders. Last year his estimated fortune had decreased by $71 billion, or 57%, from 2021.
At the time the CEO was living a nightmare, fueled by investors' rejection of his bet on the metaverse as the Next Big Thing for the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Investors felt that betting the future of the social-media empire on large numbers of consumers opting for a virtual world in their future interactions was foolish and too risky.
Zuckerberg Pivots
Zuckerberg clung to this risky strategy for a long time, until he opened his eyes and agreed to focus on his group's core business, namely developing the products and services that social-network users want and use.
This change in strategy is paying off.
He started by announcing two big waves of job cuts. The first, on Nov. 9, eliminated 11,000 jobs, the first layoff for Meta since it was created in 2004. The second wave, in March, tossed 10,000 jobs. In total, Meta cut 21,000 jobs in about five months.
The executive also declared 2023 the year of efficiency. This effort is paying off.
On April 26 the company reported first-quarter revenue rose 3% to $28.65 billion. Net income fell 24% to $5.71 billion, but that figure included a restructuring charge of $621 million. Spending will be tightened this year, the Menlo-Park, Calif., company said, expecting second-quarter revenue ranging $29.5 billion to $32 billion.
Since the first wave of job cuts on Nov. 9, Meta’s stock has well more than doubled (up 157%), which translates into a market value gain of $390 billion. The social-media giant has thus regained its place in the world's top 10 largest companies by market capitalization.
In 2022, Meta had fallen out of this elite club, which is led by Apple (AAPL). Meta is currently eighth with a market value of more than $636 billion, according to companiesmarketcap.com. Meta’s stock has doubled (up 106%) this year.
Meta: Back in the World's Top 10
The higher Meta goes, the bigger Zuckerberg's net wealth grows.
This year, the CEO's fortune has also doubled, up by $45.2 billion to $90.8 billion as of May 22, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Only Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA), has seen his fortune increase more strongly than Zuckerberg’s. Musk, the world's second-richest person, has a net wealth estimated at $182 billion, up $45.4 billion this year.
With that $90.8 billion, Zuckerberg, 39, is making a resounding return to the top 10 richest people in the world. He is ranked 10th. Ahead of him are seven other tech luminaries, a captain of industry and the legendary investor Warren Buffett.
Bernard Arnault, CEO of the French luxury group LVMH (LVMHF) , comes first with a fortune estimated at $203 billion. He is followed by Musk. In third place is Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon (AMZN), who is worth $139 billion. Bill Gates, the co-founder of software giant Microsoft (MSFT), is fourth with a net worth of $126 billion, followed by Buffett at $115 billion.
Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle (ORCL), is sixth with a fortune estimated at $114 billion. He is just ahead of Larry Page, co-founder of Alphabet (GOOGL) and Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, who are worth $113 billion and $112 billion respectively. Sergey Brin, the other co-founder of Alphabet, is ninth with a fortune of $107 billion.
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