Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is to sell a staggering £1.4billion worth of his shares in the social network website.
A big chunk of the windfall will be used to settle a tax bill from a previous share allocation, the company said.
But even after the sale of the 41.1m shares, Mr Zuckerberg will still be sitting on a fortune.
His remaining stake is worth around £80bn.
His decision to offload a chunk of the stock will reduce the 29-year-old tycoon’s voting power in the company from almost 60 per cent to 56 per cent.
Mr Zuckerberg's move forms the biggest part the 70m shares Facebook announced it was selling yesterday.
The company said: "Our principal purpose for selling shares in this offering is to obtain additional capital.
"We intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes; however, we do not currently have any specific uses of the net proceeds planned."
