Peter Thiel Sells 73% of His Remaining Stake in Facebook

• Peter Thiel Sells 73% of His Remaining Stake in Facebook

Billionaire Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook Inc., sold 73 percent of his stake in the social-media company this week.

Thiel, a member of Facebook’s board, sold 160,805 shares for $29 million, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

The transactions are the latest in a series of sales in recent years that have left Thiel, 50, with 59,913 shares valued at $11 million as of 11:21 a.m. in New York.

Facebook shares have surged 58 percent this year through Tuesday, adding $25 billion to co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune and making him the world’s fourth-richest person with $74.9 billion. Thiel has a net worth of $3.2 billion, including a stake in data analytics company Palantir Technologies Inc., according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.