Zuckerberg sells $500-mn FB stock in Feb to fund philanthropic vehicle

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg sold nearly $500 million in the company's shares in February to fund his philanthropic investment vehicle, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), regulatory filings showed.

The move is not a surprise, being part of Zuckerberg's plan to expedite stock sales to fund the initiative he set up in December 2015 with his wife Priscilla Chan.

Two security filings on Thursday showed that Zuckerberg sold 685,000 shares worth $125.4 million in the last three days of February, taking his total sales in the month to about 2.7 million shares worth $482.2 million, according to Reuters calculations. (http://bit.ly/2oyrDTM)

Zuckerberg said in September he would sell 35 million to 75 million shares of Facebook over the next 18 months.