Social networking giant Facebook on Thursday said its founder Mark Zuckerberg will sell about 41.4 million 'Class A' shares of the company to raise about $2.31 billion.
Zuckerberg intends to utilise the proceeds from the share sale to fund a tax bill, which will arise out of the firm's Chairman and CEO's move to purchase 60 million 'Class B' shares of Facebook.
Following the share sale, Zukerberg's stake in the California-based social networking site will reduce to 56.1 per cent from 58.8 per cent.Facebook is also commencing an underwritten registered public offering of 70 million shares of its 'Class A' common stock.
About 27 million shares are being offered by the firm, while around 42.99 million shares are being offered by some selling stockholders, which includes Zuckerberg.
Facebook shares stood at $55.75 apiece in the after hours trading on NASDAQ on Wednesday.
The rights of the holders of 'Class A' common stock and 'Class B' common stock are identical, except voting and conversion rights.
Each share of 'Class A' common stock is entitled to one vote. Each share of 'Class B' common stock is entitled to ten votes and is convertible at any time into one share of 'Class A' common stock.
In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Facebook said: "Facebook is offering 27,004,761 shares of its Class A common stock and the selling stockholders are offering 42,995,239 shares of Class A common stock.