Zuckerberg earns $3.3bn on sale of share options in 2013

PanARMENIAN.Net - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg earned $3.3bn on the sale of share options in 2013, a new regulatory filing has revealed, according to BBC News.

Zuckerberg has now exhausted his supply of stock options as a result of Facebook's public offering. He was given 60 million shares to help him with his tax bill.

His base salary for 2013 fell to $1, like other tech leaders such as Google's Larry Page and former Apple boss Steve Jobs.

However, his total compensation for the year was $653,165, down from $1.99m in 2012.

Facebook said the majority of that was to pay for flights on private jets, which are seen as necessary for security reasons.

Zuckerberg still owns 426.3 million Facebook shares, which are worth around $25.7bn.

Shares in the social networking giant have more than doubled in value over the past year, as Facebook has reported better than expected earnings due to its strong mobile ad sales.