In May 2012 Facebook went public, holding its IPO (Initial Public Offering). At the time Facebook stock was floated for US$38 per share. Based off the fact that Zuckerberg owns 503 million shares of Facebook, Zuckerberg was estimated to be worth roughly US$19.1 billion at the time. Ever since May, Facebook’s share price has slid and lost value, currently floating at around US$24. That means Mark Zuckerberg is now worth roughly US$12 billion. In other words, Mark Zuckerberg has lost US$7 billion since May.

Of course Zuckerberg didn’t literally lose $7 billion out of his pocket. It could be said Facebook was overvalued at its IPO and its current share price reflects Facebook’s true worth. As such, Zuckerberg’s net worth was overvalued in May and his true net worth is $12 billion. And taking into account lockup periods that prevent company insiders from dumping shares immediately after an IPO, it is not like Zuckerberg could have sold all his 503 million shares in May and made away with $19.1 billion. So since he couldn’t have cashed out in May, the loss of net worth since May isn’t the exact same as losing literal dollars. However, the debate between paper money and real money is all semantics. Bottom line is because of Facebook’s underwhelming performance as a public company, Facebook’s share price has declined. If Facebook shares didn’t lose a third of their value, Zuckerberg wouldn’t have lost a third of his value, and $7 billion is a lot of value, even if Zuckerberg’s current $12 billion puts him among the 72 richest people in the world.

Similar to Zuckerberg, other Facebook insiders have lost value since May, too. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has lost roughly $700 million; co-founder Dustin Moskovitz has lost $1.6 billion; and former executive Sean Parker has lost $1 billion. Let’s all have a moment of silence for these poor souls.

[via CNN Money | Image credit: Frame maker]