09 May, 2012

The Maturation of the Billionaire Boy-Man

The Maturation of the Billionaire Boy-Man: The letter that Zuckerberg included in Facebook’s IPO prospectus is even more direct about his priorities than Bezos’s was. Zuckerberg wrote this letter himself, a �Facebook source says, and it begins with the following sentence: “Facebook was not originally created to be a company.”

Rather, Zuckerberg explains, Facebook “was built to accomplish a social mission—to make the world more open and connected.” Then Zuckerberg reveals why he’s telling us this: “We think it’s important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do.” Later, he spells out it out again. “We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”

For short-term investors, the letter amounts to three-alarm klaxon: “Don’t buy this stock!” Because not only is Zuckerberg declaring that he considers Facebook’s social mission a higher priority than Facebook’s business and financial mission—a view many on Wall Street would consider treasonous—he also has complete control over the company. All shareholders will be able to do if they disagree with his decisions is complain. And Zuckerberg has long since demonstrated that he’s willing to withstand bitching while he executes his plan.