Meta Platforms Inc META CEO Mark Zuckerberg piled $12.5 billion to his wealth making him worth $69.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
What Happened: The billions of dollars of increase in the net worth of Zuckerberg came as Facebook parent’s shares surged 23.3% to $188.77 on Thursday.
Investors cheered Meta’s cost-cutting measures as enumerated in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings numbers.
Costs and expenses in the fourth quarter rose 22% year-over-year to $25.77 billion, which included restructuring-related charges of $4.2 billion.
“Our management theme for 2023 is the ‘year of efficiency’ and we’re focused on becoming a stronger and more nimble organization,” said Zuckerberg.
See Also: How To Buy Meta (Formerly Facebook) Shares
Why It Matters: Meta Platforms is guiding fiscal year expenses to range between $89 billion to $95 billion, lower than an earlier range of $94 billion to $100 billion.
Meta Platforms announced fourth-quarter revenue of $32.17 billion which came in ahead of Street's estimate of $31.53 billion.
Zuckerberg is now fifth when it comes to year-to-date gains behind the likes of Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, and Changpeng Zhao, according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
In 2022, by December, Zuckerberg had registered one of the biggest falls in wealth — a drop of $80.7 billion — as the price of Meta shares plunged.
The drop took place after the company reported mixed quarterly numbers in October, but at the time CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden noted that Zuckerberg is “gonna own your eyeballs” in five years' time.
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