Meta shareholders could receive free shares if Mark Zuckerberg hits what the company itself calls “extraordinary” targets. In a Wednesday filing, Meta said it will pay a dividend of one Class C share for every Meta share owned each time the stock price doubles.
The first trigger is the upcoming Class C shares rising from a baseline of $580.60 to just over $1,161. The stock’s compound annualised return since September 10 must also be at least 10%. A second dividend follows if the 30-day volume-weighted average price doubles again to around $2,322 with the same return, and so on.
Meta Reshuffles Share Structure Over California Billionaire Tax
This comes on top of an initial dividend declared Wednesday, in which Class A and Class B shareholders receive Class C shares on a 1:1 basis, likely in late January.
The restructuring responds to Zuckerberg’s concerns about California’s proposed billionaire tax, a one-off 5% wealth tax on roughly 250 billionaires in the state. The Class C shares would let him raise the cash to pay the tax without selling existing shares and eroding his voting power.
Meta’s board acted after Zuckerberg said he was considering leaving California. The filing cautions that steps like listing his home for sale could prompt employee questions about management. Zuckerberg ranked fifth on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a $247 billion net worth, and Meta’s market cap is nearly $1.8 trillion.
