Zoom founder becomes world's 130th richest person, transfers $6 billion shares
The allocations are in line with the Yuans' "typical estate planning activities"
Eric Yuan, chief executive officer of Zoom Video Communications Inc., donated more than a third of his stake in the company, filings show which has made him the world's 130th richest person.
Last week, Yuan gifted nearly 18 million shares of the conferencing-technology business. The stock, which was owned by a Grantor Retained Annuity Trust, or GRAT, for which Yuan is a trustee, was not named in the filings.
Based on Friday's closing price, the stock was worth around $6 billion, reports Bloomberg.
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According to a Zoom spokesperson, the allocations are in line with the Yuans' "typical estate planning activities."
Yuan, 51, joins other members of the world's mega-rich who've been transferring stock recently -- including Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, who last month gave some of his Zoom holding to his businessman son Richard. Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person, has been donating shares of Amazon.com Inc. in support of a $10 billion pledge made last year to combat climate change.
Pandemic Surge
Yuan became one of the world's wealthiest people as demand for Zoom's main product skyrocketed during the pandemic. The stock surged almost 400% last year, but has dipped 7.8% in 2021.
He's the world's 130th-richest person with a pre-transfer net worth of $15.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a $9.2 billion increase since last March. The company has also brought huge gains to other shareholders, including Tiger Global Management's Chase Coleman and Taiwanese investor Samuel Chen. Li's Zoom stake now represents almost one-fifth of his net worth.
Born in China, Yuan was refused a U.S. visa eight times before finally prevailing and moving to Silicon Valley. An early employee of rival video-conferencing group WebEx Communications, he founded Zoom in 2011, inspired in part by the challenges of maintaining a long-distance relationship when he was in college.
The Wall Street Journal reported the share transfer earlier Monday.
