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Facebook stock drop: Zuckerberg no longer in world's richest 40

Despite drop, Facebook co-founder may well be the last person to be concerned about losing a few million dollars.

Emil Protalinski
2 min read
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on May 18, after ringing the ceremonial Nasdaq bell from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Facebook

So far this month, Facebook's stock has fallen some 7 percent. The biggest loser is, of course, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The damage has cost the 28-year-old his spot on the Bloomberg Billionaire's Index of the 40 richest people in the world.

This drop won't affect Zuckerberg's day-to-day living. In fact, he just refinanced the mortgage on his $6 million home in Palo Alto, Calif., with a 30-year adjustable-rate loan starting at 1.05 percent.

The rates available to individuals with a high net worth (Zuckerberg may have lost some value, but he's still a multibillionaire) are lower if they agree to bear the risk of monthly interest rate adjustments. Given that the Federal Reserve wants to keep interest rates near zero for the next two years at least, large spikes are unlikely in the near term.

Zuckerberg doesn't need a mortgage, but when you can get one at a rate below inflation, you're essentially borrowing for free. In other words, this was yet another brilliant move by the Facebook CEO (or at least his financial advisers).

But Zuckerberg may not care too much about all this. There was a time when the young man wanted to sell Facebook to make a quick buck, but that era is long gone. Zuckerberg has publicly stated that Facebook's mission "isn't to be a public company" but "to make the world more open and connected."

Zuckerberg wants to connect everyone on the planet. His next goal is break the 1 billion user milestone for the social network. As of March 2012, the Web site has more than 901 million monthly active users and over 488 million mobile active users.

To keep Facebook growing and relevant, Zuckerberg needs to focus on mobile. The CEO knows this; before his company went public he declared that Facebook's mobile app was the top priority. Though we've seen constant improvements to the Android and iOS apps Facebook itself develops, the company still has a lot to improve. It's probably a safe bet that Zuckerberg is carefully overseeing their progress.