Mark Zuckerberg Responds To Skeptics, Elaborates On LLC Plan

Friday, December 4, 2015

After new parents Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan revealed their plans this week to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares, a firestorm of controversy erupted. On the one hand, many people —  including Bill Gates and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — praised the couple for the generous gesture. Others, however, questioned their motives.

Zuckerberg and Chan currently own about $45 billion worth of Facebook stock. A vast majority of that wealth, they said, will be funnelled into the newly-launchedChan Zuckerberg Initiative. A limited-liability company (LLC), the organization will “join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation,” the couple vowed in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Critics of the Facebook co-founder were quick to cast doubt on the move. There were questions about how much of the couple’s wealth would actually go to charity. As Gawker noted, an LLC — unlike a charitable trust — can “spend its money on whatever it wants, including private, profit-generating investment.”

Some people also took issue with the vagueness of the couple’s plan. Quipped Esquire’s Stephen Marche: “These goals coincide with literally every political ideology from libertarianism to Communism.”

In an apparent effort to mitigate some of these concerns, Zuckerberg took to Facebook on Thursday to elaborate upon his original announcement.

Source: Huffington Post (link opens in a new window)

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Investing
Tags
impact investing, philanthropy