Interesting that he's going to start giving away shares now. Makes me wonder if he doesn't see much more financial upside to FB, at least at current price levels.
If there's a lot more value to to accrue to his FB stock (even on a time-discounted basis), wouldn't he want to rationally wait for the future value of those shares to materialize to have maximum impact?
Alternatively he could just think that the value to society of funding the right causes (in his mind) is just that much greater than the time-discounted future value.
Or the foundation he donates the stock to can hold onto (most of) the stock. Meanwhile he gets to do the tax free transfer now, before Congress can get around to limiting the size of the tax free transfer you can do or anything else that might impact his plans.
If there's a lot more value to to accrue to his FB stock (even on a time-discounted basis), wouldn't he want to rationally wait for the future value of those shares to materialize to have maximum impact?
Alternatively he could just think that the value to society of funding the right causes (in his mind) is just that much greater than the time-discounted future value.