Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg has already passed Apple CEO Steve Jobs in net worth, a check of the pair's finances discovered tonight. The social network's leader at 26 has roughly tripled his value in a year's time to $6.9 billion through a private valuation of Facebook at $23 billion, increasing the worth of his personal stake. Jobs, 55, added a relatively modest $1 billion and is worth $6.1 billion, Forbes determined.
The gap largely comes from the balance of shares. Most of Zuckerberg's worth is tied to Facebook itself, while just 5.5 million of Jobs' shares, or $1.3 billion, is invested in Apple, the company he helped create. He holds about 138 million shares, or $4.4 billion, in Disney as a condition of the deal that sold Pixar to Disney four years ago. Apple's market value has surged in the past year to reach an all-time high, but Disney has remained quiet and wouldn't be a growth driver for Jobs' stock. Facebook's much more concentrated wealth has made any significant growth more meaningful for Zuckerberg and anyone connected.
Both CEOs have had only partial contact despite their new closeness in wealth. Apple allows Facebook contact sync but had troubled negotiations for Ping. Facebook in turn has one of the most popular apps on iOS devices but has mostly stayed away from being either a close partner or a competitor; it just today shot down rumors of a Facebook phone and said it would work with Apple in the limited form possible.
