It's a "Beautiful Day" to be Bono. As Facebook goes public, the U2 frontman could stand to make up to $1.5 billion off the widely anticipated IPO. 
 
 UPDATE: Bono addressed rumors of his big payout with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. Though he did not say how much he made off the IPO, he took issue with the billion-dollar figure: 
 
 "Contrary to reports, this boy is not a billionaire or going to be richer than any Beatle - and not just in the sense of money, by the way. The Beatles are untouchable. That's just a joke. In Elevation, we invest other people's money , endowments, pension funds. We do get paid and that is a good thing, I'm blessed, but I felt rich when I was 20 years old and my wife was paying my bills. Just being in a band, I've always felt like this, I've been so blessed. I got interested in technology because I'm an artist, I'm interested in the forces that shape the world, politics, religion, the stuff we've been talking about today. Technology is huge. I wanted to learn about it. People say it's odd, 'you're a musician, why are you doing all this.' But I think it's odd if artists aren't more interested in the world around them." 
 
 CNN Money has more details on the singer's potential earnings: 
 
 Bono was one of just six founding partners of Elevation Partners. So, at best he'd get $216 million (once the original investment is subtracted). But then you have to realize that Elevation only receives 20% of the profits on its deal, with the rest going to its limited partners. So, suddenly, Bono's take is down to $43 million. 
 
 The original article continues below. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The business-savvy, Irish rocker owns 2.3 percent of the shares of Facebook through his investment group, Elevation Partners, reports NME. Elevation paid $90 million for the shares in 2009, before Facebook decided to go public earlier this year. Facebook's $100 billion IPO is expected to be the second-biggest IPO in history. 
 
 It's unknown exactly what portion of Elevation's earnings would flow to Bono, but as a co-founder of the investment firm, the handsome return may make him the richest musician on the planet, surpassing Sir Paul McCartney and his vast fortune of an estimated $1.05 billion. 
 
 In other news, U2 are reportedly working with the songwriters behind British boy band One Direction, including Swedish pop writer Carl Falk, who wrote the group's breakthrough hit, "What Makes You Beautiful." 
 
 An unnamed source told NME: "The band are back in the studio getting a feel for new material after the last album 'No Line On The Horizon'. Will.i.am had a credit on that and they are looking to explore that direction further. They have been working with Danger Mouse and RedOne. They are excited about getting to work with Carl Falk." 
 
 PHOTOS: Celebrities trying to score big in the tech world. 
 
 Ashton Kutcher: Foursquare, Ooma Inc., Hipmunk, etc. The tech-savvy actor Ashton Kutcher is perhaps the king of all celebritechies, with financial and/or creative involvement in more than a dozen different sites and start-ups. The extensive list includes: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/technology/26ashton.html" target="_hplink">Foursquare</a>, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/05/24/ashton-kutcher-from-that-70s-guy-to-that-investor-guy/" target="_hplink">Ooma Inc.</a>, <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/10/05/hipmunk-funding/" target="_hplink">Hipmunk</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/technology/26ashton.html" target="_hplink">Flipboard</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/technology/26ashton.html" target="_hplink">Path</a>, <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/14/ashton-kutcher-invests-gidsy/" target="_hplink">Gidsy</a>, <a href="http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-10-25/tech/30316845_1_meg-whitman-kleiner-perkins-marketplace" target="_hplink">Zaarly</a>, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/05/24/ashton-kutcher-from-that-70s-guy-to-that-investor-guy/" target="_hplink">Skype</a>, <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/social-shopping-site-fashism-gets-cash/" target="_hplink">Fashism</a>, and many more. Kutcher even <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/09/27/ashton-kutcher-two-men-startups/" target="_hplink">plugged some of his many ventures</a> (to CBS's dismay) in an episode of <em>Two And A Half Men</em>. 
 
 Justin Timberlake: Myspace, Dekko, Miso, & Stipple Sure, Justin Timberlake played the tech-savvy entrepreneur Sean Parker in the 2010 film <em>The Social Network</em>, but he also possess some real-world business skills of his own. In 2010, the singer-turned-actor-turned-investor <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/18/stipple-raises-2m-from-kleiner-perkins-mike-maples-and-justin-timberlake/" target="_hplink">put some money</a> into photo-sharing service <a href="http://stippleit.com/" target="_hplink">Stipple</a> and <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/person/justin-timberlake" target="_hplink">music education start-up</a> <a href="http://www.misomedia.com/" target="_hplink">Miso Media</a>. Last summer, Timberlake <a href="http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eegi45ljmm/justin-timberlake/#gallerycontent" target="_hplink">staked a claim in Myspace </a>and in start-up <a href="http://www.dekko.co/vision/" target="_hplink">Dekko</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/justin-timberlake-invests-in-super-stealth-startup-dekko-2011-7?op=1" target="_hplink">according to Business Insider</a>. 
 
 Lady Gaga: Turntable.fm & Backplane Mega pop star Lady Gaga poured some of her wealth into music-sharing service <a href="http://turntable.fm/" target="_hplink">Turntable.fm</a> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kanye-west-and-lady-gaga-have-invested-in-turntablefm-2011-7?op=1" target="_hplink">last August</a>. More recently, she made a splash with her financial support of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/07/lady-gaga-backplane-social-network-for-celebrities_n_872382.html" target="_hplink">Backplane</a>, a social startup geared toward celebrities. With Gaga's help, the company <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/16/lady-gaga-backed-backplane-raises-over-4m-from-sequoia-more-acquires-sharing-platform-cortex/" target="_hplink">garnered more than $4 million</a> from a range of investors in February. Backplane currently powers Gaga's social-networking site <a href="http://littlemonsters.com/" target="_hplink">LittleMonsters.com</a>. 
 
 Will Ferrell: FunnyOrDie.com Remember that hilarious viral video starring Will Ferrell and an angry baby landlord named Pearl? That short skit -- aptly titled "<a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74/the-landlord-from-will-ferrell-and-adam-ghost-panther-mckay" target="_hplink">The Landlord</a>" -- just happened to be <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/" target="_hplink">FunnyOrDie.com</a>'s very first upload after its <a href="http://mashable.com/2007/04/16/funnyordie/" target="_hplink">launch back in 2007</a>. Its more than 78 million views go to show how successful the comedy site, founded by Ferrell's production company <a href="http://www.garysanchezprods.com/" target="_hplink">Gary Sanchez Productions</a>, has become in just a handful of years. 
 
 Justin Bieber: PhoneGuard, Inc. Though he just <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/justin-bieber-birthday-singer-18-photos_n_1311530.html" target="_hplink">turned 18 on March 1</a>, Justin Bieber has already invested money in <a href="http://phoneguard.com/Default.aspx" target="_hplink">PhoneGuard, Inc.</a> Last June the mobile application company <a href="http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/justin-bieber-phoneguard-introduce-phoneguard-360-mobile-phone-applications-suite-saving-otcqb-opmg-1523051.htm" target="_hplink">launched a campaign led by Bieber</a>, who spoke out against texting while driving. 
 
 Kim Kardashian: Shoedazzle Television personality Kim Kardashian turned her passion for fashion into an online empire with <a href="http://www.shoedazzle.com/" target="_hplink">Shoedazzle</a>, which she <a href="http://" target="_hplink">co-founded back in 2009</a>. As of last May, the shoe-sharing style site had <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110516007340/en/ShoeDazzle-Secures-40-Million-Financing-Led-Andreessen" target="_hplink">gained $60 million in funding</a> since its March 2009 launch. 
 
 Stephen Fry: Pushnote In January of last year, UK actor Stephen Fry <a href="http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/stephen-fry-launches-pushnote/3022323.article" target="_hplink">announced the launch</a> of <a href="http://pushnote.com/user/register" target="_hplink">Pushnote</a>, a social networking site that allows web users to share and comment on any web page they want, without having to deal with separate accounts or log-ins. 
 
 Bono: Elevation Partners U2 frontman Bono took a broader and more involved approach to investing by co-founding private equity firm <a href="http://www.elevation.com/" target="_hplink">Elevation Partners</a>. Some of its <a href="http://www.elevation.com/EP_port.asp" target="_hplink">current portfolio companies</a> include <a href="http://www.facebook.com/" target="_hplink">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://www.yelp.com/" target="_hplink">Yelp</a>, and <a href="http://www.forbesmedia.com/" target="_hplink">Forbes Media</a>. 
 
 Selena Gomez: Postcard On The Run Selena Gomez -- actress, singer and Justin Bieber's girlfriend -- has also tried her hand at investing. Last November, she contributed to a $750,000 funding round for mobile app, <a href="http://www.postcardontherun.com/" target="_hplink">Postcard on the Run</a>, reported <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20111117/selena-gomez-makes-her-first-tech-investment/" target="_hplink">AllThingsD</a>. 
 
 Leonardo DiCaprio: Mobli Real-time visual media platform <a href="http://www.mobli.com/" target="_hplink">Mobli</a> picked up Leonardo DiCaprio as an investor last October, <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/10/25/leonardo-dicaprio-mobli/" target="_hplink">according to Mashable</a>. The actor contributed to a $4 million seed round with other "<a href="http://mashable.com/2011/10/25/leonardo-dicaprio-mobli/" target="_hplink">high profile investors</a>." 
 
 Ellen DeGeneres: SoJo Studios Ellen DeGeneres <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/29/backed-by-ellen-degeneres-and-others-sojo-studios-launches-facebook-game-wetopia/" target="_hplink">currently backs</a> social gaming start-up <a href="http://www.sojostudios.com/?pg=home" target="_hplink">Sojo Studios</a>. Last November, the company <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/30/wetopia-facebook-game-charity_n_1117549.html" target="_hplink">launched Facebook game WeTopia</a>, which allows participants to play for a good cause by offering contributions during gameplay. 
 
 Lance Armstrong: Mobli Lance Armstrong followed in DiCaprio's footsteps this past January -- <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/lance_lot_com_i2GQrHxNKrhK2V90Ui4wUO" target="_hplink">according to The New York Post</a>, the celebrity cyclist also invested an undisclosed amount of money in the start-up <a href="http://www.mobli.com/" target="_hplink">Mobli</a>. 
 
 Dr. Dre: Beats By Dre <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/22/headphones-vs-earbuds_n_1165385.html" target="_hplink">Way back in 2008</a>, veteran rapper Dr. Dre launched an extremely successful foray into the tech world with the introduction of his very own <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/30/beats-by-dr-dre_n_745613.html#s148081&title=BeatBox" target="_hplink">audio device brand</a>, <a href="http://beatsbydre.com/" target="_hplink">Beats by Dr. Dre</a>. 
 
 Zooey Deschanel: Hello Giggles Launched <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/zooey-deschanels-new-lady-site-called-hello-giggles-132041" target="_hplink">last May</a>, <a href="http://hellogiggles.com/" target="_hplink">Hello Giggles</a> is a website full of cute and informative content and dedicated to "<a href="http://hellogiggles.com/about" target="_hplink">smart, independent, and creative females</a>." Actress and singer Zooey Deschanel founded the site with producer Sophia Rossi and writer Molly McAleer. 
 
 Kanye West: Turntable.fm <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kanye-west-and-lady-gaga-have-invested-in-turntablefm-2011-7?op=1" target="_hplink">Last August</a>, rapper Kanye West contributed to a $7.5 million round of investing for the popular social music-sharing network <a href="http://turntable.fm/" target="_hplink">Turntable.fm</a>. 
 
 M.C. Hammer: Square Inc., WireDoo, & Bump Technologies When it comes to investing, M.C. Hammer is too legit to quit. While <a href="http://pushnote.com/user/register" target="_hplink">DanceJam</a>, the social media dance site he co-founded, was a flop, the rapper has invested in a number of other successful ventures. So far, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/04/21/mc-hammer-to-minority-entrepreneurs-lets-get-it-started/" target="_hplink">he's contributed to</a> mobile payments startup <a href="https://squareup.com/" target="_hplink">Square Inc.</a> and app developer <a href="http://bu.mp/" target="_hplink">Bump Technologies</a>. <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/10/mc-hammer-wiredoo-deep-search-engine.html" target="_hplink">Last October</a>, Hammer introduced the soon-to-come search engine <a href="http://wiredoo.com/global/signup.html" target="_hplink">WireDoo</a>. 
 
 LL Cool J: Boomdizzle At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in January, rapper LL Cool J <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/ll-cool-j-demos-and-discusses-new-boomdizzle-music-recording-platform-with-partner-dolby/" target="_hplink">announced the launch</a> of virtual music recording platform <a href="http://www.boomdizzle.com/" target="_hplink">Boomdizzle</a>. LL Cool J co-founded the community-based site <a href="http://www.boomdizzle.com/llcoolj_launches_virtualstudio_pr" target="_hplink">back in 2008</a>. 
 
 Demi Moore: Fashism <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/social-shopping-site-fashism-gets-cash/" target="_hplink">In November 2010</a>, Demi Moore joined fashion journalist Nina Garcia, former hubby Ashton Kutcher, and others in a $1 million investment round in social shopping site, <a href="http://fashism.com/" target="_hplink">Fashism</a>. 
 
 Seth Green: Shodogg Actor Seth Green's very first tech investment in TV, computer and smartphone video-syncer <a href="http://www.shodogg.com/" target="_hplink">Shodogg</a> seems to have been a good one. While the site first shared its services at January's <a href="http://ces12.mapyourshow.com/5_0/exhibitor_details.cfm?exhid=T0009343" target="_hplink">Consumer Electronics Show</a>, it had already <a href="http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/mobile-excellence-awards-announces-its-2011-winners-prestigious-awards-gala-los-angeles-1596218.htm" target="_hplink">won a Mobile Excellence Award</a> for best delivery platform in December 2011. 
 
 Magic Johnson: Detroit Venture Partners Former NBA player Magic Johnson jumped on board with Detroit Venture Partners <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/21/earvin-magic-johnson-joins-detroit-vc-firm-to-invest-in-tech-startups/" target="_hplink">in July of last year</a>; the firm has so far invested in sites such as <a href="http://www.sociocast.com/" target="_hplink">Sociocast</a>, <a href="http://www.flud.it/" target="_hplink">FLUD News</a>, and <a href="http://www.stylecaster.com/" target="_hplink">Stylecaster</a>. 
 
 will.i.am.: Intel Last January, <a href="http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2011/01/25/intel-teams-with-william-black-eyed-peas-front-man" target="_hplink">Intel announced</a> it would be adding Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am. to its team as director of creative innovation in order to develop "new technologies, music and tech advocacy." 
 
 Jason Mraz: Intel, Trippy Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz is another celeb who has teamed up with Intel. The tech company <a href="http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2011/09/21/chip-shot-intel-asus-and-jason-mraz-join-in-search-for-incredible" target="_hplink">announced in September 2011</a> that the performer would join in judging a competition that would help celebrate the launch of the ASUS N Series notebook. More recently, on March 8, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/08/trippy-advisors-and-browsing/" target="_hplink">TechCrunch reported</a> that Mraz, who had invested in Pinterest-like social travel website <a href="http://www.trippy.com/" target="_hplink">Trippy</a> <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/15/disrupt-alum-trippy-raises-1-75-million-thanks-to-ribs-and-fried-chicken/" target="_hplink">back in November 2011</a>, had been named an advisory board member for the site. 
 
 Rachel Zoe: Trippy <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/08/trippy-advisors-and-browsing/" target="_hplink">TechCrunch reported in March</a> that, in addition to singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, well-known celebrity stylist and <a href="http://www.trippy.com/" target="_hplink">Trippy</a> investor Rachel Zoe would also be joining the website's advisory board. But this isn't Zoe's first encounter with the tech world; she starred in <a href="http://www.geeksugar.com/Microsofts-Bing-Teams-Up-Rachel-Zoe-Project-4370659" target="_hplink">a few Microsoft Bing commercials</a> back in 2009. 
 
 ALSO ON THE HUFFINGTON POST 
 
 Related on HuffPost: ||||| NEW YORK ( TheStreet ) -- On Friday, like most of you, I watched the nation's media help to perpetrate one of the great frauds in American history. 
 
 Consider. If I can barely sell 15% of something at $38 a share, if I have to lay out millions-upon-millions of dollars to prop up that price for a single day, what makes you think I can sell the rest of it at that price, or anything like that price? 
 
 Exactly. 
 
 Yet there wasclaiming that Bono's"made" $1.6 billion in theIPO. There were anchors on all the other networks breathlessly claiming that there were now hundreds of "Menlo Park millionaires" who held shares in the social networking company. 
 
 I spent much of the day at Stocktwits , watching people with money comment on the action in real time. As the day went on, the mood went from euphoria to anger to disgust. A typical comment: "When I got up today, it felt like the Superbowl. Now it feels like it's the 4th quarter of a 45-0 blowout." 
 
 The insiders knew the story: The brokers who were in the IPO were standing by with orders to buy at $38, no matter what, all day. And they knew, we all know, that won't go on for long. 
 
 Even while this was happening, with Facebook trades coming across at$42 and $38 and change at the same time in after-hours trading,kept pretending nothing was happening on its own ticker. 
 
 Why wasn't anyone, on any network, allowed to say that this new technology emperor was wearing no clothes, that the company wasn't worth anything near what brokers were claiming it was worth, that a fraud was being perpetrated on the public investor? 
 
 I'm still waiting for an answer. 
 
 Now I know Facebook makes a great story. It sounds just like the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, where everyone believed they could get rich quick. Even me. 
 
 But it was nothing like that. 
 
 The gains were all gotten by the insiders, by the venture capitalists and brokers who bought into the company first. I have no doubt the company is worth many times what Bono paid for his stake. But by the time Facebook went public -- long before, in fact -- it was a fairly mature enterprise facing serious headwinds. 
 
 Facebook can't control the mobile platform. Facebook faces new competition in Google+. Facebook's privacy policies are alienating millions. (Joke of the day: "Why did Facebook go public? Because they couldn't figure out their privacy policy.") Facebook can't get into China. Facebook faces increasing, and increasingly skeptical, government scrutiny. 
 
 In short, Facebook has peaked. 
 
 I know. Whenboughtback in 2000, no one wanted to write that the dot-com boom era was over, that it was all about to go pear-shaped, that we'd found the maximum price for Internet assets and it was all downhill from there. 
 
 Well, I did. I wrote it at ClickZ, and I wrote it on my a-clue.com newsletter. But I'm just a stupid blogger. No one listens to me. And I'm still a stupid blogger. 
 
 But I'm still right, too. ||||| SAN FRANCISCO _ Dressed in his trademark hoodie and jeans, Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg kicked off a cross-country road show to pitch his company’s initial public stock offering. 
 
 Hundreds of institutional investors stood in long lines Monday to pile into a ballroom at New York’s Sheraton Hotel to hear the billion-dollar pitch from the 27-year-old chief executive before his company’s hotly anticipated IPO. The meeting was closed to the media. 
 
 Facebook is trying to build excitement for the IPO that in a few weeks could value the company at more than $96 billion. That would make it the largest offering to come out of Silicon Valley. The Menlo Park, Calif., company said last week that it would offer 337.4 million shares at $28 to $35 each. 
 
 Investors expect that price range to jump as the road show makes its way across the nation, including stops in Boston and Chicago. Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion in its IPO. It’s expected to price the offering May 17 and begin trading the next day. The shares will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol FB. 
 
 The presentation was more than an hour late in starting and began with a slickly produced video, which frustrated some would-be investors, who say they only got the opportunity to ask eight questions. 
 
 Zuckerberg was accompanied by Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman, in suit and tie, and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, in business attire. They fielded questions about Facebook’s slowing revenue growth and its $1 billion purchase of photo-sharing firm Instagram. 
 
 The executives said they were confident that Facebook’s growth would continue. Zuckerberg called Instagram a “good deal” and said he would buy Instagram again. 
 
 “All in all, it wasn’t extremely penetrating,” said one investor, who added that he had never seen anything like the heightened security at the Facebook event. 
 
 Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Herman Leung expects Facebook’s revenue to grow 40 percent this year and 33 percent in 2013, he said in a note to investors Monday. He said the $28 to $35 range was a “compelling entry point” for investors. 
 
 “It’s generally agreed upon amongst investors that the Facebook IPO will be very successful and Facebook as a company will be very successful,” said Anthony Valencia, a media analyst at TCW Group who attended the event. “What is not agreed upon is how much upside there will be for new investors.” 
 
 ___ 
 
 (c)2012 the Los Angeles Times 
 
 Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com 
 
 Distributed by MCT Information Services 
 
 _____ 
 
 Topics: c000047573 ||||| Mark Zuckerberg has gotten so rich that he can fund his philanthropic foundation and retain voting control without Facebook having to issue a proposed non-voting class of stock that faced shareholder resistance. Today Facebook announced that it’s withdrawn its plan to issue Class C no-vote stock and has resolved the shareholder lawsuit seeking to block the corporate governance overhaul. 
 
 Instead, Zuckerberg says that because Facebook has become so valuable, he can sell a smaller allotment of his stake in the company to deliver plenty of capital to his Chan Zuckerberg Initiative foundation that aims to help eradicate disease and deliver personalized education to all children. 
 
 “Over the past year and a half, Facebook’s business has performed well and the value of our stock has grown to the point that I can fully fund our philanthropy and retain voting control of Facebook for 20 years or more,” Zuckerberg writes. Facebook’s share price has increased roughly 45 percent, from $117 to $170, since the Class C stock plan was announced, with Facebook now valued at $495 billion. 
 
 “We are gratified that Facebook and Mr. Zuckerberg have agreed not to proceed with the reclassification we were challenging,” writes Lee Rudy, the partner at Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP that was representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking to block the no-vote share creation. Zuckerberg was slated to testify in the suit later this month, but now won’t have to. “This result is a full victory for Facebook’s stockholders, and achieved everything we could have hoped to obtain by winning a permanent injunction at trial.” 
 
 “I want to be clear: this doesn’t change Priscilla and my plans to give away 99% of our Facebook shares during our lives. In fact, we now plan to accelerate our work and sell more of those shares sooner,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I anticipate selling 35-75 million Facebook shares in the next 18 months to fund our work in education, science, and advocacy.” That equates to $5.95 billion to $12.75 billion worth of Facebook shares Zuckerberg will liquidate. 
 
 When Zuckerberg announced the plan in April 2016, he wrote that being a founder-led company where he controls enough votes to always steer Facebook’s direction rather than cowing to public shareholders lets Facebook “resist the short term pressures that often hurt companies.” By issuing the non-voting shares, “I’ll be able to keep founder control of Facebook so we can continue to build for the long term, and Priscilla and I will be able to give our money to fund important work sooner.” 
 
 A spokesperson for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative told TechCrunch that this outcome is very good for the foundation, because it provides more predictability to its funding. The plan will also allow Zuckerberg to deliver cash to the CZI sooner, which its new CFO Peggy Alford will be able to allocate between its health, education and advocacy projects. 
 
 With the new plan to sell shares, it’s unclear what might happen to Zuckerberg’s iron grip on Facebook’s future in “20 years or more.” 
 
 Dropping the Class C shares plan may be seen as a blow to Facebook board member Marc Andreessen, who Bloomberg revealed had coached Zuckerberg through pushing the proposed plan through the rest of the board. But given Zuckerberg’s power, Andreessen is unlikely to be ousted unless the Facebook CEO wants him gone. 
 
 For the foreseeable future, though, Zuckerberg will have the power to shape Facebook’s decisions. His business instincts have proven wise over the years. Acquisitions he orchestrated that seemed pricey at first — like Instagram and WhatsApp — have been validated as their apps grow to multiples of their pre-buy size. And Zuckerberg’s relentless prioritization of the user experience over that of advertisers and outside developers has kept the Facebook community deeply engaged instead of pushed away with spam. 
 
 Zuckerberg’s ability to maintain power could allow him to continue to make bold or counter-intuitive decisions without shareholder interference. But the concentration of power also puts Facebook in a precarious position if Zuckerberg were to be tarnished by scandal or suddenly unable to continue his duties as CEO. 
 
 Zuckerberg warned investors when Facebook went public that “Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission.” And yet Facebook has flourished into one of the world’s most successful businesses in part because shareholders weren’t allowed to sell its ambitions short. ||||| What were you doing at 9:30 a.m. Eastern? You certainly weren’t ringing the NASDAQ’s opening bell as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was doing. But what Zuck did simultaneously is perhaps even cooler. 
 
 To celebrate the once-in-a-lifetime, historic moment, Zuckerberg posted a status update like no other to Facebook. 
 
 “Mark Zuckerberg listed a company on NASDAQ. — with Chris Cox and 4 others,” reads Zuckerberg’s Friday morning update (see screenshot to the right). 
 
 The unusual status update went live right as Zuckerberg rang the opening bell, which can only mean that the social network configured the update especially for today’s special occasion. To do so, engineers used Facebook’s Open Graph API, which lets developers create custom actions, like “read a book,” “listened to a song,” or, in this case, “listed a company.” 
 
 In fact, clever Facebook engineers actually “hacked” the NASDAQ button to post the update, goes the story told by David Garcia, a senior software engineer at Facebook, on TechCrunch. 
 
 “We hooked up our hack to run at exactly the same time as Mark pushed the button to turn on the light and ring the bell. Then we attached a wire that hooks to the hack and into the headset jack of a cell phone,” Garcia said. “When the button was pressed, it sent a signal through the hack, and the phone got the signal that triggered the custom action through our Open Graph API, posting a story onto Mark’s Timeline. It worked.” 
 
 Facebook yesterday priced its shares at $38 apiece for a $104 billion valuation. The social network will raise $16 billion (up to $18.4 billion with its over-allotment option) in its long-awaited initial public offering on the NASDAQ later today. Shares are expected to begin trading around 11 a.m. Eastern today.
– By the time you read this, Facebook shares will likely have begun trading (or not). But the hoopla around the IPO was slightly dampened today, thanks to a mammoth class-action privacy lawsuit filed against it. The case combines 21 separate suits accusing Facebook of tracking users even when they weren't logged in, the Telegraph reports. They're looking for $15 billion—almost enough to wipe out the $16 billion Facebook stands to take in today. In other IPO news: Mark Zuckerberg rang the opening bell this morning, in a remote ceremony from Facebook's Menlo Park campus, VentureBeat reports. The best part? The button he pushed was rigged so that ringing the bell would publish a status update on Zuckerberg's timeline: "Mark Zuckerberg listed a company on NASDAQ. — with Chris Cox and 4 others." How high will Facebook go? Well according to Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider, bids in Germany have hit $74 per share—a massive gain on the $38-per-share they've been priced at. One man watching that price with great interest? Bono. The Huffington Post points out that the U2 frontman owns 2.3% of Facebook, and may, after today, be the richest musician in the world.