Mark Zuckerberg has officially surpassed Bill Gates to become the fourth richest person in the world. He’s richer by $28 billion, thanks to a 22 percent surge in Meta stock price. He is currently worth $165 billion, only behind LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, according to Forbes. Bill Gates’s net worth is currently $124 billion making him the fifth-richest person.
Furthermore, the Facebook founder is about to receive $174 million in cash when Meta pays out its first-ever dividend in March owing to the fact that he owns around 350 million class A and B shares, both of which receive dividends. Zuckerberg will end up earning more than $ 690 million every year if Meta continues to maintain its 50-cent quarterly dividend, as reported by CNBC.
Mark Zuckerberg also made headlines last week as he took a stand in the fight against Apple. Zuckerberg added his voice to growing concerns about Apple’s new App Store rules designed to meet the European Union’s (EU) Digital Markets Act. During a Meta earnings call, Zuckerberg criticized Apple’s implementation of the EU’s Digital Markets Act for iOS app stores, claiming the rules are extremely restrictive and go against the spirit of the legislation, expressing doubt that developers will find them appealing.
“I don’t think that the Apple thing is going to have any difference for us… I think it’s just going to be very difficult for anyone, including ourselves, to seriously entertain what they’re doing there” Zuckerberg stated.
This comes after Apple announced on January 25th that third-party marketplaces will be allowed on iOS, and the fee structure of the App Store will be modified in 27 EU countries, applicable from March 2024. Following its designation as a “gatekeeper” company along with five others (Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance, and Microsoft) in September 2023, Apple is implementing adjustments to its App Store as part of its compliance efforts with the EU’s Digital Markets Act.