Mark Zuckerberg doubles his personal riches

4 Jan 2011

The Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has seen his personal fortune double to stg£9bn following the cash injection of US$500m from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky into Facebook announced yesterday.

Zuckerberg appears to be on a continual roll, especially after being named Time Person of the Year for 2010.

In terms of his philanthropic interests, Zuckerberg founded the Start-up: Education Foundation in September 2010.

He also became a signatory of The Giving Pledge in December, an effort that invites the wealthiest individuals and families in the US to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Other famous givers to The Giving Pledge include Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, investor Warren Buffett, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, Hobby Lobby Stores owners David and Barbara Green, filmmaker George Lucas, first president of eBay Jeff Skoll and media mogul Ted Turner.

Zuckerberg has also donated an undisclosed sum to Diaspora, a free personal web server that implements a distributed social-networking service.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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