Zuckerberg’s Net Worth Breaks the Ceiling … Facebook CEO Becomes World’s Fifth Richest

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Facebook, on Wednesday, announced a stellar second-quarter earnings report, which showed huge gains in revenue and profitability.
The announcement, which was made after normal trading hours, sent Facebook shares up five percent by the opening of markets on Thursday.
Those gains were a tremendous boon to Mark Zuckerberg’s personal fortune. His net worth rose $3.8 billion on Thursday, sending him past Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu to become the planet’s fifth-richest person.
He is now worth an estimated $72.7 billion-a record high-according to Forbes’ real-time rankings of the world’s billionaires.
In its quarterly report, Facebook beat analyst expectations on profitability and on revenue, the ninth straight quarter it has done so.
Between April 1 and June 30, total revenues were $9.32 billion, a 45 percent increase over last year’s second quarter. That surge was driven largely by mobile advertising.
Profits also rose substantially; the company posted earnings per share of $1.32, a 69 percent gain from the same period in 2016.
In all, Facebook shares are up more than 50 percent since January, equivalent to a market cap increase of nearly $170 billion. Zuckerberg’s net worth has risen in turn; his fortune has jumped over $24 billion since January 1 .
That success has come while social media rivals Twitter and Snap continue to languish on public markets.
Zuckerberg, 33, founded Facebook in 2004 as a 19-year-old student at Harvard. He later dropped out as sophomore to focus full-time on the startup.
The business, which began as a small social networking platform for Ivy League universities, now has more than 2 billion monthly active users.
Following Wednesday’s earnings release, Zuckerberg posted on his personal Facebook profile to celebrate the results.
He wrote: “I’m proud of the progress our community is making. The the platform’s success comes with a responsibility to make sure we have the most positive impact on the world that we can.”