Despite the Cambridge Analytica scandal of data theft and misuse, Facebook has continued to rake in cash in the financial market.
Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now the third richest man in the world, overtaking Warren Buffett on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s richest people.
Zuckerberg passed Buffett Friday as Facebook shares rose 2.4 percent, Bloomberg reported. Above Zuckerberg were Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in the No. 1 spot, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The daily rankings of the world’s 500 richest people listed in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed the top 3 remained the same Saturday.
Zuckerberg is now worth $81.6 billion, nearly $400 million more than Buffett, chairman of the Berkshire Hathaway investment group, rankings show. Zuckerberg’s California-based social network business has more than 2 billion active monthly users.
The company’s stock has reached a record high despite ongoing scrutiny over its Cambridge Analytica data breach that leaked personal information of up to 87 million people, MarketWatch reported. Zuckerberg has pledged to give away 99 percent of his Facebook stock away in his lifetime, his Bloomberg profile shows.
Further, Zuckerberg has given $3.58 billion in stock sales away this year alone to a charity initiative he set up with his wife, Priscilla Chan, in 2015. Buffett has donated about 290 million of his shares in Berkshire Hathaway to charities — an equivalent of about $50 billion.