Zuckerberg Plans to Sell as Much as 18% of His Facebook Shares

• Zuckerberg Plans to Sell as Much as 18% of His Facebook Shares

Mark Zuckerberg, the world’s fifth-richest person, plans to sell as much as 18 percent of his Facebook Inc. stock during the next 18 months.

The founder and chief executive officer of the world’s biggest social media company expects to sell 35 million to 75 million shares, Menlo Park, California-based Facebook said Friday in a regulatory filing. The stock ended the week at $170.54, valuing 75 million shares at $12.8 billion.

Zuckerberg, 33, and wife Priscilla Chan, 32, have a $72.4 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. They had pledged in December 2015 to sell most of their Facebook shares over time to invest in philanthropic causes.

Facebook scrapped plans to create a new class of shares that would have allowed Zuckerberg to sell almost all of his stock without losing voting control of the company, a move that aggrieved some shareholders.