A Huge Week For Facebook Alums Peter Thiel, Dustin Moskovitz And Justin Rosenstein

Two of the biggest names connected to Facebook Inc FB are now connected through sharing Sept. 30, 2020, as the day of companies they founded going public via direct listings.

Peter Thiel: The first big outside investor in Facebook was Peter Thiel. He has since sold most of his shares, but remains active in the company as a member of the Board of Directors.

Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR and thanks to being the large financial backer in the early days, he owns the largest stake.

Palantir shares hit the public market at $10. Shares closed at $9.89, after trading between $9.11 and $11.42 Wednesday. A $10 price implies a $22 billion valuation.

Thiel has an ownership connection of 17.7% of the company prior to the offering through direct ownership and three investment firms he founded. Thiel has an estimated 8% direct ownership of Palantir.

Through his Founders Fund, Thiel also owns a stake in Asana Inc ASAN, the other big direct listing from Wednesday. Founders Fund had a 6.5% ownership stake in Asana prior to the offering.

Forbes estimates Thiel at No. 391 on its richest people list with a net worth of $2.1 billion. That figure could now see many changes with Palantir and Asana actively trading.

Dustin Moskovitz: Asana was co-founded by two former Facebook employees Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein. Moskovitz helped co-found Facebook with his Harvard University roommate Mark Zuckerberg.

Unlike Thiel, Moskovitz still owns a good chunk of Facebook stock, with an estimated 2% ownership in the company.

Asana went public via a direct listing. Shares closed Wednesday at $28.80 after trading in a range of $26.75 to $29.96. Moskovitz owns around 35% of Asana, a company now valued at $4 billion.

Moskovitz is listed as the 37th richest person in the world by Forbes, with an estimated wealth of $16 billion. Moskovitz previously held the title of the youngest self-made billionaire.

Justin Rosenstein: Asana was co-founded by Justin Rosenstein, a former Facebook engineer. Rosenstein attended Stanford University and worked at Google GOOG before coming to Facebook.

At Facebook, Rosenstein worked closely with Zuckerberg and Moskovitz. He would leave to help create Asana with Moskovitz.

Rosenstein has an estimated 16.2% ownership in Asana, valued at around $680 million based on a $4 billion valuation.

Photo credit: Web Summit, Wikimedia